MAPLEWOOD • Drivers had to squeeze through the intersection of Hanley and Manchester roads on Wednesday, where the failure of a 1930s-vintage stormwater pipe caused the pavement to fail.

“It’s a 42-inch corrugated metal pipe,” said Allen Muehlher, a program manager in the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District’s construction group. “You don’t see it so much anymore, to be honest with you.”

The sewer district and its contractor, J.H. Berra, spent Wednesday investigating the extent of the failure, which for a while threatened to shut down Hanley Road altogether.

Get used to it.

America’s network of underground pipes that carry storm runoff to creeks and rivers, transport sewage to treatment plants, and deliver water to our taps is breaking down beneath our feet. Sewer and water main failures have become more common.

In a national report card issued last month, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave water-delivery systems and wastewater pipe very low marks. The group gave them each a D. Believe it or not, that was an improvement over the last report card, in 2009, when those categories each received a D-minus. Overall, the nation’s infrastructure — scooping up other categories such as highway bridges, dams and airports — earned a D-plus.

“From our perspective, there is a lot of work to be done,” said Brian Pallasch, managing director of government relations and infrastructure initiatives for the society. “St. Louis is not a brand-new city. It is an older city. What we are finding is that the older cities are working to replace their infrastructure but they are probably not replacing it as quickly as they would like.”

There are 240,000 water main breaks across the country each year, the report card said, but the quality of drinking water itself remains “universally high” and outbreaks of diseases attributable to drinking water are rare. Wastewater and stormwater treatment systems will require a $298 billion infusion over the next 20 years.

Authors of the report card concluded that challenges posed by the country’s aging wastewater systems are “daunting.” St. Louis and hundreds of other older cities mix raw sewage with storm runoff that is dumped into creeks and rivers.

In the short term, shoring up the water and wastewater infrastructure would require a threefold increase in proposed spending, or $126 billion, by 2020, the report concluded.

Missouri will need $7.1 billion more in the next two decades to meet its drinking-water needs, and $5.8 billion to improve its wastewater infrastructure, the report card shows. Illinois will require an extra $17.5 billion to meet its wastewater needs over the next 20 years and $15 billion to meet its drinking-water requirements.

The underground pipe that failed this week carries stormwater toward Deer Creek, Muehlher said. Emergency repair crews sent a television camera inside to pinpoint the failure. By about 2 p.m., Muehlher said, the problem appeared to be contained to the southeast corner of the intersection.

“We’re digging down,” he said while crews tried to deal with a skinny underground conduit that ran alongside the trench. “Our goal is to get this thing opened up before the rain rolls in.”

The corrugated-metal sewer was installed in the 1930s by the Maplewood Sewer District, one of those consolidated within the MSD. The sewer was buried 15 to 20 feet below the ground.

Crews also worked on the west side of Hanley, where debris from the collapse plugged the stormwater line.

Hanley carries about 40,000 cars a day, and its partial closure poses a significant obstacle to area drivers. One lane of traffic in each direction will remain closed on Hanley just south of Manchester at least through today. MSD officials predict crews will be working on the street through next week, and urged drivers to consider alternative routes.

Some local agencies already have taken steps to shore up their infrastructures, officials said Wednesday. MSD has undertaken a 20-year, $4.7 billion investment program, said agency spokesman Lance LeComb.

Failures such as the one at Hanley and Manchester occur several times a year — often enough to “make the case that we have to be on top of this,” LeComb said.

Missouri American Water Co. has taken steps to prevent water main breaks, which tend to be most common in the cold winter months and during dry, drought-like conditions, spokeswoman Ann Dettmer said. Missouri American, which serves St. Louis County and parts of St. Charles County, has replaced 141 miles of aging water mains over the past five years at a cost of $138.5 million, Dettmer said.

Nationwide, Dettmer said, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has suggested it would take nearly $335 billion of investment in drinking water systems from 2007-27 to ensure safe drinking-water deliveries to homes and businesses. In Missouri, that need is $7 billion over the two-decade period.

Missouri American also has worked with a local engineering contractor using “infrared energy pattern analysis” to find underground leaks, she said.

Curt Skouby, director of public utilities for St. Louis, said the city replaced water mains based on the break history, and performed preventive maintenance as well.

“There is an unmet need out there,” he said “This is not unique to us.” He noted, “Unlike a road that you know to repave because you get tired of the potholes or rust on the bridge, these are all buried out of sight.”

Ken Leiser is the transportation writer at the Post-Dispatch. Read his Along for the Ride column online and every Sunday in the newspaper.