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Anyone planning to drive on state Highway 79 about 20 miles south of Hannibal may need to select a new route - a portion of the highway just south of Ashburn has been closed.
Mark Giessinger, MoDOT maintenance and traffic engineer, reported the highway was closed at around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, due to unstable road conditions.
“This is an area about 150 feet south of what was fixed in 2008,” said Giessinger. “We’ve been monitoring a slight crack in the road since last year, and it has dropped about 10 inches, leaving barely a one-lane road still intact.”
The highway is closed from Route B to Route TT. It was closed with barricades and motorists are alerted with message boards, MoDOT reported.
MoDOT is unsure when it is expected to open. “We have called our geologists who were monitoring the area, and they plan to come up the first part of this week to try to determine what is going on underneath the road,” Giessinger said.
Giessinger expects a similar process to the one when the same thing happened in April 2008. “This looks similar to the conditions surrounding the previous slide; we will know more in a few days,” he said.
The area being closed is on a hill and is just south of a slide that occurred last year, said Marisa Brown, MoDOT community relations manager on Sunday afternoon. “It was caused by instability underground, and it dropped significantly over the last day.”
MoDOT said it appreciates the patience of those who travel highway 79 as MoDOT works to ensure the road is safe for travel.
Previous news articles and pictures from the other slide that was repaired in 2008 can be found at http://www.modot.mo.gov/northeast/Route79inPikeCountyTemporarilyClosed.htm.
Anyone planning to drive on state Highway 79 about 20 miles south of Hannibal may need to select a new route - a portion of the highway just south of Ashburn has been closed.
Mark Giessinger, MoDOT maintenance and traffic engineer, reported the highway was closed at around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, due to unstable road conditions.
“This is an area about 150 feet south of what was fixed in 2008,” said Giessinger. “We’ve been monitoring a slight crack in the road since last year, and it has dropped about 10 inches, leaving barely a one-lane road still intact.”
The highway is closed from Route B to Route TT. It was closed with barricades and motorists are alerted with message boards, MoDOT reported.
MoDOT is unsure when it is expected to open. “We have called our geologists who were monitoring the area, and they plan to come up the first part of this week to try to determine what is going on underneath the road,” Giessinger said.
Giessinger expects a similar process to the one when the same thing happened in April 2008. “This looks similar to the conditions surrounding the previous slide; we will know more in a few days,” he said.
The area being closed is on a hill and is just south of a slide that occurred last year, said Marisa Brown, MoDOT community relations manager on Sunday afternoon. “It was caused by instability underground, and it dropped significantly over the last day.”
MoDOT said it appreciates the patience of those who travel highway 79 as MoDOT works to ensure the road is safe for travel.
Previous news articles and pictures from the other slide that was repaired in 2008 can be found at http://www.modot.mo.gov/northeast/Route79inPikeCountyTemporarilyClosed.htm.
