By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis – Transportation officials say they still don't know what caused a section of the Poplar Street Bridge deck to crack.
The discovery of the problem led to major traffic snarls last week on I-64 from Illinois into Missouri over the Mississippi River.
State department of transportation director Pete Rahn (RON) inspected the repair work at the site Thursday with his counterpart from Illinois.
Rahn says there was never danger of a catastrophe on the bridge.
"Eventually we would have had a failure in that roadway but the systems that we have in place of annually inspecting this bridge would have prevented that from occurring," Rahn said. "Had this not been discovered now, most drivers would have thought they were riding on a normal, rough bridge."
Rahn says he does not know how much the repair of the cracked section will cost. Nor does he know when the work will be completed.