By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Renewed flooding crippled efforts by road crews to recover from the initial flooding.
Area Engineer Adam Watson with the Northwest District of the Missouri Department of Transportation says MoDOT had issued emergency contracts to repair flood damage to reopen U.S. 136 and U.S. 159 between northwest Missouri and southeast Nebraska.
“Contractor had to pull out of those areas, because they re-flooded,” Watson tells St. Joseph Post. “So, it brought that work to a standstill. It also slowed down some of the assessments of the original damage. The water had never receded enough for us to assess all of the damage. So those areas we’ve still never gotten to.”
Major roads had been reopened after water receded from the mid-March floods. Then, flooding returned at the end of May, closing roadways and bridges throughout northwest Missouri, greatly disrupting traffic.
Interstate 29 remains closed to through traffic. Flooding has shut the interstate down in southwest Iowa. Local traffic can drive I-29, through traffic is being re-routed north of St. Joseph at U.S. 71.
Watson says MoDOT is at the mercy of Iowa and Mother Nature.
“We don’t want to be the bad neighbors that send people up there where there’s nowhere to go,” Watson says. “I really want to encourage people who are going to northwest Missouri. Still, northwest Missouri is still open for business. It’s just an interstate is for traffic traveling through and right now, there’s no through.”
MoDOT had let emergency contracts to make repairs to U.S. 136 and U.S. 159 in northwest Missouri to allow travel between northwest Missouri and southeast Nebraska. The contractors had to pull out when renewed flooding made road work impossible.
“We’re still waiting to assess the damage from the second event. (U.S.) 136, we had several scours, deep holes, as well as on (U.S.) 159, and we had started filling those and even had gotten one hole filled before the contractor had to pull out. But, we’re waiting to reassess, as the water goes down, how much more damage,” according to Watson.
Initial flood damage to northwest Missouri roads and bridges was pegged at approximately $20 million. That is sure to go up once floodwaters from the second event recede enough to actually inspect the damage.
MoDOT has reopened Route 45 in southern Buchanan County from U.S. Route 59 into Platte County. Route 59, a major route into Kansas, remains closed between Rushville and Atchison, Kansas.