93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Traffic is still slow for miles on both eastbound and westbound I-70 near the Rocheport bridge this evening.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol has reopened westbound I-70 at the 115-mile marker, which was closed for more than five hours today. The Boone County Fire Protection District says the crash involved five-vehicles, including a truck carrying 57 head of cattle, which had to be off-loaded on the bridge and cows moved to stock trailers.
Our news partner KMIZ reports three cows died when they escaped and jumped off the bridge.
Eastbound I-70 has also been backed up for miles all afternoon. One 939 the Eagle employee says it took her two-and-a-half hours to drive from Boonville to Columbia, which is normally about a 30-minute drive.
In addition, there’s currently a crash on Highway 40 north of Boonville that’s causing a significant backup for traffic that exited I-70 for the bridge crash earlier. Missouri state troopers are encouraging motorists to find a safe place to turn around and travel eastbound on Highway 40 to Midway.
This bridge cannot be done soon enough to six Lanes but we need to go ahead and fast-track the interstates to six lane from the Missouri River Bridge to pass Columbia as fast as we can with the money that’s already been allocated to widen the interstate how many more people must die how many more crashes must happen before we start fast tracking this project!