GRANDVIEW, Mo. -- The city of Grandview was hit hard by last month’s floods, with the heavy rain causing around $4 million in infrastructure damage.
One area of great concern is a double culvert underneath Raytown Road just south of Harry Truman Drive.
“The pipe is actually tipping. It’s coming lose from its concrete shield,” said Dennis Randolph, City of Grandview Public Works Director.
The pipes are leaking water into the ground underneath Raytown Road.
The problem has already caused a trail to collapse.
“It needs to be redone and what we think is the best solution at this point is to build a couple new bridges,” said Randolph.
Over on 150th Street, a new retaining wall was just put in after the first one was knocked down by the heavy flood waters.
“The water came through and actually pushed these heavy blocks down and filled up the tunnel,” said Randolph.
Several bridges are still blocked by debris, something the city isn’t equipped to remove themselves.
“We have to hire a contractor to do that. We don’t have equipment that can necessarily pull that stuff that’s jammed under the bridge out,” said Randolph.
The list of issues caused by the floods goes on.
“We had somewhere around $3.4 to 4 million in damage to our infrastructure,” said Randolph.
An amount of money the city did not account for in its budget.
“We have to go out and try to find some money,” said Randolph.
The goal is to get about 80 percent of the $3.4 to 4 million paid for with federal funds.
The top priority is the double culvert on Raytown Road; Randolph said if it is not fixed in the next couple of years, it will become a sink hole.
The project is also the most costly of the repairs at $1.5 million.
Randolph is very hopeful he’ll be able to get the federal money the city needs.
