Jefferson City’s High Street viaduct closed for emergency repairs
Matthew Sanders
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Jefferson City Public Works Department shut down a portion of West High Street Thursday after what was initially reported as a pothole turned out to be a significant structural issue.
“It was not a pothole, it was indeed a hole in the structure,” said Molly Bryan, spokeswoman for the City of Jefferson. “There’s deteriorated concrete, and steel that fell through,”
The city closed the road around 11 p.m. for the safety of drivers and pedestrians and installed detour signs overnight. The damaged area has since been covered with a steel plate.
The road will remain closed until engineers complete a full structural assessment of the entire viaduct. The city expects to receive that report early next week.
“If they come back and say here’s the repairs that need to be made and it’s going to be anticipated X amount of dollars, we’ll give that to our leadership, our city council, to make the determination whether they want to make those repairs,” Bryan said.
City leaders will have to decide whether to spend potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars repairing the damaged section now or wait and focus on fully replacing the aging structure if grant funding comes through.
Last week, the city applied for a federal grant to replace the viaduct and construct a new connector bridge linking River Market to Deborah Cooper Park.
The viaduct replacement is estimated to cost approximately $16.9 million. The proposed connector bridge is projected at $7.5 million.
“The grant, the way it’s structured, is multi-modal transportation is favorable. So by having a vehicular bridge and then also a pedestrian bridge, it will score favorable in the grant selection process. We should hear back in June whether or not we receive that grant.”
Bryan said the city has been working out all the small details for this project for years.
“Currently there’s some land conveyance legislation with the state that we need some of their property to do the design. We’re about 95% of the design work, which is been almost $1 million,” she said.
The overall project was placed on hold last year due to rising cost estimates.
According to Bryan, the city last completed work on a portion of the viaduct in 2022, which cost around $100,000.
If the project does happen construction will begin in 2028.
City officials said public safety remains the top priority as they await the engineering assessment and determine next steps for the aging viaduct.