The 30-foot-wide cave-in that opened below and shut down Interstate 44 for at least a week serves as a good example of why infrastructure and public works should remain funded, said the head of Missouri's statewide center focused on improving roads and bridges.
Heath Pickerill, who leads Missouri's Local Technical Assistance Program that's funded by the Federal Highway Administration and the Missouri Department of Transportation, said aging infrastructure gets more complex to fix when it fails.
"Oftentimes, people only think about it when they're driving down a road and they hit a pothole — or they're on a rough road," said Pickerill, a professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. "Again, this highlights that those problems with infrastructure go well beyond just the surfaces that we drive on."
While cave-ins are quite common, this one will generate more attention on the issue of funding infrastructure because of the location, he said.
"Hundreds of thousands of people are being impacted — not only the residents of St. Louis, but also the thousands of people that are using the interstate," Pickerill said.
The water main break of 100-year-old pipes that created the cave-in on Friday comes in the middle of two debates being had at City Hall that center around replacing aging waterworks: dividing up Rams settlement dollars and raising water rates.
Under the proposal being considered by the Board of Aldermen, $70 million of the $230 million settlement from the St. Louis Rams leaving for Los Angeles would be spent to repair citywide infrastructure, including water.
Aldermen are also expected to vote on a measure later this week that would raise water rates for city residents 90% over the next six years to put the St. Louis Water Division on stable financial footing.
The Missouri Department of Transportation shut down a stretch of I-44 since the cave-in formed near the bridge's stabilizing columns. It's expected to be closed for at least a week while the state agency reinforces the area around the columns before the hole is filled.
Severe weather forecast for Wednesday afternoon and evening could complicate those efforts, Pickerill said.
"Depending on the severity of the storm, you can't have you know bridge inspectors out there during thunderstorms doing inspections and so forth," Pickerill said. "So it certainly adds to the challenge at hand and will likely create some delays — hopefully not more than a day or two, but it's hard to say."
Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the allocations of the Rams settlement bill.
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