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.