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MISSOULA (KPAX TV) — Engineers with the Montana Department of Transportation say there’s no structural problems with a “sinkhole” that developed adjacent to the Russell Street Bridge tonight.
But they aren’t sure what caused the problem in the first place. Traffic in the northbound lanes of Russell Street had to be diverted for a time on Thursday evening after crews discovered a “hazard” on the heavily traveled route.
MTN News later learned it was in, in fact, 6-foot long sinkhole that had opened up in the street.
Missoula Police say only one car was damaged before the street could be shut down. But the detour snarled rush hour traffic.
MDT construction engineer Bob Vosen says the contractors working on the bridge, Dick Anderson and Knife River, quickly dispatched crews who began making emergency repairs.
It turns out the two-foot deep hole wasn’t on the bridge deck itself, but on the street approach on the north end, climbing up to the bridge from West Broadway.
“I do want to assure everyone that this is not a structural problem with the bridge. There is no hole in the bridge deck like social media is saying. It was a sinkhole, or if you will a very large pothole developed in the roadway, not on the bridge,” Vosen said.
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Mark R Thorsell
thorsell@kpax.com4062149958
