Local fire departments voice support for Rocheport bridge replacement
U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley and U.S. Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Sam Graves announced Monday that the state had been awarded a grant that would allow the Missouri Department of Transportation to replace the Interstate 70 bridge near Rocheport.
Before the announcement, both the Boone County and Cooper County Protection Fire Districts voiced their support for the bridge replacement.
“Obviously, a bridge replacement is going to be better for the entire community, better for the state, better for emergency services responding to any incidents out there,” said Assistant Fire Chief Gale Blomenkamp from the Boone County Fire Protection District.
Both departments had been working to plan for how to respond to wreck on or near the current bridge if MoDOT moved forward with the rehabilitation project. They had concerns about response times with backups expected to be anywhere between three and eight hours.
“Eight or nine miles westbound puts that traffic backup right here at Stadium Boulevard. So it’s very concerning in a sense that trying to get things that direction if we need to,” Blomenkamp said.
Cooper County said the station it expected to use during the work is not a manned station.
“Our issue is getting manpower to that station to respond with trucks,” said Fire Chief David Gehm from the Cooper County Fire Protection District.
Gehm also voiced concern about getting large vehicles such as firetrucks and ambulances through backup traffic or onto the bridge.
“One of our main concerns is the trucks are getting so big, and so tall, and so heavy, it’s hard to squeeze between a vehicle and the guardrail,” Gehm said.
The departments were working to find landing areas for helicopters.
“So if we need to bring in a helicopter just to transport people, we could do that. Obviously, we wouldn’t do that for minor injuries but anything of much significance, we may see an increase in the use of helicopters,” Blomenkamp said.
Prior to the announcement, the departments had been working with each other as well as other departments to prepare for the worst-case scenarios.
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