The number of roads closed in Missouri from recent flooding has dwindled to about 50. Flooding led to more than 200 road closures last week in Missouri. Traffic Liasion Engineer Rick Bennett with the Missouri Department of Transportation said the roads that remain closed are primarily in rural areas.
“We will probably have some lingering road closures that will go on for a couple of weeks as you get down into the southeast part of the state. The roads that don’t have damage should open up in the next week or two. Some of the places the water just takes a while to drain out, even though the rivers have gone down,” said Bennett.
“The folks out in the field, the boots in the ground as we call them, are the ones who really do all the hard work to go out there and do the traffic control and sandbagging and all the other things that we do out there, especially in the St. Louis area. It’s been a tough time, but we’re starting to see the light of day,” said Bennett.
The only highly traveled road still closed is Highway 67 from Alton, Illinois to St. Charles County and into St. Louis County.
Bennett knows of at least a couple of roads that have extensive damage, including Route 59 in McDonald County and Route C in Franklin County. He thinks both have less than a mile of repairs. Several other roads still have standing water.
Flooding is expected this week in the Cape Girardeau area and south to the Bootheel. Bennett said the flooding could lead to some roads closing.
“Particularly down in closer to the Mississippi River,” said Bennett. “As you get down in the bootheel, some of them may be farther away too because of the way the ground is flat and the way the drainage works.”
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