Sad Support for a Long-Delayed Bridge

The up and down levels (mostly up) of the Meramec River this year and last has caused delay after delay in the completion of the new Old Gravois Road Bridge in Fenton.

The "Frustration Bridge" is still on hold as the Meramec was rising this week, cresting at 23.3 feet Thursday, and expected to drop to 19 feet by next Friday.  And that's only if no more rain falls here or in the watershed that feeds into the Meramec.

The bad news is that's still six feet too high for workers to reinstall the flood-damaged bridge support before being freed from the vagaries of the river levels. If the river dropped to 13 feet today, the work on the supports and roadway would not be finished until next summer, Sartors said.

"Everybody is frustrated with it and we are too," said Mark Sartors, Fenton's city adminstrator. "It's a challenge. We don't have any control over the water."

Sartors said the Meramec River is at a historic high for the second year in a row.

"Last year it was 140 years ago that the river stayed this high this long," he said. "And now it's two years in a row."

There IS some good news on the bridge front. Just a short distance away, workers are busy on the Old Highway 141 bridge spanning Gravois Creek. After a 4-5-week delay earlier this spring, it appears the bridge will be finished by the end of September. Repoening Old Hwy. 141 would eliminate a detour that takes motorists through the sprawling Gravois Bluffs Plaza.

Sartors made one suggestion to the Fenton Board pf Aldermen, all for naught.

"I tried to get the board to pass an ordinance banning high water," he said. "But they wouldn't do it."