A well-traveled exit from Interstate 70 to Interstate 64 in East St. Louis is shut down indefinitely, meaning commuters headed east across the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge need to find a different route.
The Illinois Department of Transportation closed the exit ramp earlier this summer because of a joint that failed “catastrophically,” said Joseph Monroe, an operations engineer with IDOT.
“There was an opportunity to consider a temporary repair, but we would have been trying to attach a temporary repair onto a failed system,” Monroe said. “It just isn't a safe approach. I realize it's inconvenient and people are not happy with it — but we don't compromise on safety.”
The repairs don’t have a definitive end date or cost estimate at the moment, Monroe said. That’s because IDOT is too early in the repair process.
IDOT does know the final replacement joint will be shipped in early 2025, so the ramp will be shut down at least until the new year.
An estimated 13,400 commuters use the ramp each day, IDOT statistics show.
A traveler first alerted IDOT to a hole in the joint, which connects two pieces of the overpass bridge and allows the structure to expand and contract. Within 40 minutes, the hole got “progressively worse,” Monroe said.
“We are very fortunate that someone called in,” he said.
The McKinley, Martin Luther King, Eads and Poplar Street bridges provide motorists with alternatives during construction. Westbound lanes of I-70 and the bridge headed toward Missouri aren’t affected by the construction and will remain open.
“There are parallel routes that have the capacity to accept this traffic,” Monroe said. “Yes, is it inconvenient? We understand. But we’d rather it be inconvenient than have a crash.”
Construction crews have fast tracked repairs. Currently, IDOT is paying overtime to get the new joints designed and manufactured. When those are complete, the state agency will start putting them in place.
