Bridge in East St. Louis closed indefinitely after it’s struck by a vehicle

A bridge at 26th Street and Missouri Avenue in East St. Louis is closed to through traffic indefinitely after it was struck and damaged by a vehicle.

A motorist crashed into the bridge Sunday around 6 p.m.

Scanner traffic reported it was an 18-wheeler, but details from the East St. Louis Police Department have been unavailable.

Dawn Y. Johnson, regional communications liaison for Region 5 of the Illinois Department of Transportation, said: “We had to close the bridge indefinitely due to a bridge hit. The department performed an initial inspection on Monday and determined the bridge needed to be closed due to significant damage to multiple truss members by a motor vehicle Sunday.”

Johnson doesn’t know what type of motor vehicle struck the bridge, causing what she said was significant damage that the department is tasked with fixing.

No details about the repairs, including how long they will take or their cost, are known at this time.

Johnson said the state agency is in the process of performing further inspections that will be ongoing to determine the extent of the damages and the scope of work to repair it.

“As of right now we don’t have those determinations in place,” she said. “Once we do we will be sharing our plans and how that progress will look.” She said alternate routes for the traveling public include Bond Avenue, Illinois 163 and Illinois 15 (Missouri Avenue).

“At the forefront of the decision of IDOT’s to close the bridge is to preserve the safety of the motoring public as well as the rail line that is below the structure,” she said. “ While this may be an inconvenience, we are definitely doing our best to try to figure out these damages, what they are and what we can do to put a plan in place to get this repaired as soon as possible. “

Officials at Norfolk Southern have been unavailable for comment.