KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A northbound lane of the Missouri 291 bridge over the Missouri River at Sugar Creek is closed indefinitely after a recent inspection found “significant deterioration,” according to the state Department of Transportation.
On Friday morning, northbound traffic on the bridge was reduced to one lane. MoDOT said it found significant rust underneath the northbound bridge, especially on the east side.
"It's a steel truss bridge and it traps a lot of water in between the steel," said Stephen Collyott, district bridge engineer with MoDOT. "The reason the right side rusts more is because that's the way we snow plow and throw salt over the side."
The bridge carries roughly 11,000 vehicles daily, according to MoDOT.
"The right lane will be closed indefinitely until we can do something with the bridge," Collyott said. "We don't have all of the options gone through yet and it's a 70-year-old bridge, so do we fix it or do we replace it? That's the place where we are at right now, trying to evaluate everything (and) decide the best course of action."
The section of recent deterioration did not require repair when the 70-year-old bridge underwent maintenance in 2015, MoDOT said.
“At this time we are considering our long-term options with this bridge,” MoDOT Kansas City District Engineer Dave Silvester said in a news release. “We ask that the public be patient with us while we determine the best solution for everyone."
The 291 bridge is just one of thousands of Missouri bridges in need of a facelift.
According to MoDOT, Missouri has the sixth most bridges in the nation — with 900 in poor condition.
University of Missouri-Kansas City civil engineering professor John Kevern said the state does not have enough money to fix all of its crumbling bridges.
"We have less money to do the same amount of work and the infrastructure ages, which it takes more maintenance than it did previous to that,” Kevern said.
The last time the state increased the gas tax was in 1993. Last year, voters overwhelmingly shot down a proposal to raise the gas tax by 10 cents per gallon.
