I-55 overpass will need repairs, MoDOT engineer says

The Missouri Department of Transportation is evaluating the safety of an I-55 overpass today after a tanker truck struck the underside Saturday, damaging it.

MoDOT assistant district maintenance engineer Stan Johnson said a preliminary inspection Saturday immediately following the incident determined that the bridge was damaged and will need fixing.

"It will need to be repaired, it's just a question of what exactly will need to be done," he said.

The truck, whose tank had not been lowered entirely, was traveling east on Highway 74 just south of Cape Girardeau when it struck the underside of the bridge, knocking off the tank, spilling gallons of waste oil grease on the roadway and denting the bridge's outermost girder.

MoDOT has not shut down the southbound lane of I-55 entirely, but has placed cones around the shoulder of the interstate to keep traffic to the center and left-hand side of the bridge.

"We want to keep people off that girder line," Johnson said. "We're going to do a more thorough inspection today, try and get a repair strategy together to figure out what we can do, what we can't do, that sort of thing."

The spilled grease on Highway 74, Johnson said, has since been cleaned up.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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