Carr Street Now Features Hot Steam Pipes
Cambridge Heights is the neighborhood just north of America’s Center and the Edward Jones Dome. For many years it contained the Cochran Gardens high rise public housing project. Today it’s a nice mixed income neighborhood. The school where I vote is located here.
![9thst](http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/9thst.jpg)
![carrst1](http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/carrst1.jpg)
But earlier this month, after voting, I was making my way back downtown and spotted something I found rather odd, a section of the road closed off. I decided to get a closer look.
![carrst2](http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/carrst2.jpg)
Hot steam was coming from two pipes, with very little protection. Could this be related to the incident blocks away on April 5, 2012?
A broken pipe sent up a giant white plume of steam in downtown St. Louis this morning.
The 20-inch steam line under North 11th Street just south of Convention Plaza ruptured sometime before 7 a.m. (stltoday.com)
Maybe it’s an unrelated problem?
![carrst3](http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/carrst3.jpg)
![carrst4](http://www.urbanreviewstl.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/carrst4.jpg)
Hopefully the local media will look into this and how it may be affecting local residents. I passed by the area on a MetroBus recently and the “hot” yellow pipes remained at that time.
— Steve Patterson
Two words, Aging Infrastructure. I’m pretty sure that this steam loop originates at the Ameren plant (at Biddle & Lewis) and that the pipes under Carr are decades old. I’m also guessing that the only real solution will be to replace the entire loop, not just continue to patch it. Like everything else, it boils down to money . . . .
No pun intended…
Isn’t the entire downtown high-pressure steam loop owned and operated by a private company called Trigen Energy? Maybe they should be contacted about buffering the relief pipes that were placed in the street.