Baltimore bridge collapse raises local concern for St. Louis bridges
ST. LOUIS – Thousands of drivers travel across the Mississippi River every day and many people are wondering, with the bridge collapse in Baltimore Tuesday morning, if something similar could happen in the St. Louis area.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the busy season for the Mississippi River is coming.
“The majority of our traffic are tow boats and barges and the majority of that cargo are agriculture, whether it is fertilizer going upbound or agriculture products coming down bound for distribution,” Commander Daniel Every, USCG, said.
As the barges and boats travel the river below, heavy traffic flows on each bridge in and out of Missouri and Illinois.
“We know this affects hundreds of thousands of commuters every day. It is not just commuters. This is the freight hub of America, so we know that products that are built here and manufactured here are headed all over the world,” said Eric Schroeter, MoDOT Assistant Chief Engineer.
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Schroeter said his office has received a lot of questions about bridges after Tuesday’s news out of Baltimore.
“We design these bridges specific to the spot they are in but we use the national standards and we work with the coast guard and the corps of engineers so we do address the needs of navigation. So we do design for potential strikes by barges,” he said.
The most recent strike occurred in the summer of 2022 along the Eads Bridge, when a barge broke loose upriver.
“There was a barge that did come alongside one of the support structures. There was no damage to the Eads Bridge, there was no damage to the barge itself. But when the barge broke free, the company called our command center and let us know that it happened immediately. We were able to put a broadcast out,” Commander Every said.
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