Five Things You Can Tell Your Neighbors About Emergency Projects

You never know when an emergency is going to happen, but you can guarantee that eventually it will. An emergency for MoDOT can be as basic as downed utility line that blocks traffic for a few hours, or as complicated as the tanker explosion last November that resulted in the reconstruction of a bridge across U.S. Route 54 in Jefferson City. Either way, we’ve got a plan and tools in place to deal with emergency situations. Here are five things you can tell your neighbors about them:

• Understand and assess the situation. When the tanker truck exploded on Route 54 last November, our employees were at the scene immediately after it happened. While emergency workers are responsible for containing the aftermath of the crash, we were there to see what needed to be done about traffic flow and assess damage to our property.
• Communicate with the public. The nature of emergencies means that there will likely be a disruption or impact on traffic. It’s not enough to only focus on what’s wrong and how to fix it; we have to make sure that our customers are aware of the situation. When the tanker truck crashed under the Jefferson Street Bridge, we continually issued news releases, made frequent updates to our Web site, and even e-mailed all Central Office and District 5 employees to apprise them of the situation.
• Figure out how to fix the resulting problem. Last April, District 5 had a different type of emergency when the earth under Route 100 near Hermann began to slide away, taking the road with it. Within just days we had determined the best plan of action and had crews there to remove the unstable material and repair the slide.
• Continue to follow the standard procedures for obtaining and inspecting materials. We can speed the process up, but we still negotiate for the lowest and most responsive bidders for contract work and materials.
• If we need to, we can build it fast too. When the impact to our customers is so significant that standard work schedules aren’t acceptable, we ask our contractors and employees to work on an accelerated schedule. In both the Hermann slide and the Jefferson Street Bridge reconstruction, crews worked seven days a week. At the Jefferson Street Bridge the contractor worked on a 24-hour-a-day schedule and finished the entire structure in less than one month.