A 20-foot-long pothole opened up on eastbound I-70 near mile marker 126.5 — close to the Providence Road exit in Columbia — and MoDOT rushed emergency repairs to get it fixed before Fourth of July traffic hit, ABC17 reports. Crews closed the eastbound lane and the eastbound off-ramp to Providence Road at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 1, aiming to reopen before Thursday morning rush hour.
Improve I-70 program director Spencer Robinson said the pothole “started forming over the weekend and progressively got worse” — the pavement there is 50 to 60 years old, well past its intended lifespan. Delays in the area stretched to 15–20 minutes, up from the usual 3 to 4.
Why it matters here: this is well east of our stretch, past Rocheport toward Columbia, but it’s exactly the kind of aging-pavement failure that shows why MoDOT keeps citing safety as the reason for the whole Boonville-to-Rocheport rebuild happening closer to home. If you commute into Columbia on I-70, that Providence Road exit was the pinch point around the holiday.