BERKELEY, Mo. – A closure on a major bridge near the airport is coming soon.
St. Louis County will start tearing down the McDonnell Bridge next week as the Army Corps of Engineers works to remove radiation-contaminated soil.
The Army Corps said contaminated soil is being shipped off by truck loads from the old Berkeley ballfields.
“They’ve been cleaning up that waste up on the ballfield for several years. Today they were out there in their white Tyvek suits, looked like they were digging down pretty deep,” Karen Nickel with Just Moms STL said.
Her concern with the cleanup is the timeline.
“They might be cleaning it up but they’re not cleaning it up fast enough; they’re not cleaning it up to protective levels that we would like to see,” she said.
The Army Corps said cleanup on the former ballfields started in 2016. They’re expecting the cleanup to wrap up in June of this year. They’ve removed 100,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil so far.
The next phase of the cleanup comes after the 73-year-old bridge comes down.
St. Louis County said starting March 20, McDonnell Boulevard will be shut down between Byasse Drive and Eva Avenue.
15,000 drivers travel on the bridge daily, which runs over Coldwater Creek. The bridge needs to come down while the Army Corps removes radiation-contaminated soil from the site, which they said could take 10 months.
Just Moms STL want to see things move faster.
“The Army Corps is saying they won’t be done with the cleanup until 2038. At that point, this waste will be in our community for close to 100 years. Last year, they left $83 million on the table. What are they doing? There are areas that need to be cleaned up. Expedite this cleanup,” Nickel said.
Once removed from the ballfields, the contaminated soil is loaded up on the railcars across the street and shipped to U.S. Ecology in Michigan.
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