Pipeline leak closes bridge over river

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - The northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 69 over the Missouri River were closed for about two hours Sunday afternoon after a workman noticed jet fuel leaking from a pipeline below the bridge deck.

Kansas City, Kan., Fire Department Deputy Chief Craig Duke said the slow leak was noticed shortly before 2 p.m. by a workman working on a nearby, separate pipeline also running beneath the bridge deck. The jet fuel pipeline runs between a supplier in the Fairfax district of KCK, near the Charles Wheeler Airport downtown, and the newer, main airport north of the river, Duke said.

He said the pipeline was shut down and the fuel was drained from it, after which the bridge was reopened.
However, Duke said, the bridge will have to be temporarily shut down again sometime in the next couple of days in order to make permanent repairs to the pipeline.

The truss bridge carrying the northbound lanes of U.S. Highway 69 over the river is called the Platte Purchase Bridge. Its identical, sister bridge carrying southbound traffic is known as the Fairfax Bridge.