The proposed 21 feet above the 1844 high-water mark also brought opponents asking the Corps of Engineers to reject the application.

A death threat to kill a construction supervisor surfaced in July 1965,[6] and by November 1965 the contractor stopped work on the bridge due to the "many troubles".

[7] Meanwhile, as the rest of I-270 was open by then, the City of Madison continued to collect toll revenue from the old bridge, averaging $50,000 to $60,000 per month.

As a result, any construction work or major accident on either bridge almost always made the Alton Telegraph (with the biggest stories making front page).

As the truck traffic from the I-70 corridor increased (I-70 thru truckers preferred the I-270 routing through St. Louis due to lower congestion and shorter distances), the Alton area used the 1975 detour as a rallying point in getting the Clark Bridge replaced.

IDOT put an 8-6 width and legal weight restriction on the bridge, which forced the majority of trucks to take alternate routes during this time.

As traffic demands continue to increase, the lack of shoulders on both the canal and river bridges is starting to prove a safety hazard.

On December 8, 2010, a major tractor-trailer accident would close the bridge for 10 hours[14] and paralyze traffic in the Metro-East during the morning peak periods.

On August 23, 2022, the Missouri and Illinois departments of transportation awarded contracts to begin construction on a replacement for the "New" Chain of Rocks Bridge and interchange at Riverview Drive.