Ask the Road Crew
Is your route to work giving you a headache because of potholes, poorly timed lights or street construction? Let the experts know, and ask them your questions about highways and roads. The live chat starts at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 21.
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Could someone freshen up the lane lines on Eastbound Manchester at Lindbergh where the road takes a quick jog - they are very hard to see driving into the morning sun as well as when it's raining - cars in the left lane jog right because of the curb, but drivers in the right hand lane often go straight and cut across the edge of the left hand lane because they can't see the lane lines. Thanks. -
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Mr. Gates,
I was looking at a map of Broadway that I found on the internet. It shows Broadway in the city with designations of 231 and 366. Is Broadway a state highway? How about Marceau Avenue?
Also, when state routes such as St. Charles Rock Road enter the city, do they maintain their identify as a state route? I think that the city maintains MLK Drive, not MoDOT.
Please shed some light on this. Thank you. -
Route 231 follows Broadway to River City Boulevard, at which point Route 231 ends, and the roadway is maintained by the city from that point inward. Route 366 is Chippewa, of which we (mostly) maintain the driving surface. We do not maintain Marceau. Some state routes do maintain their identity as a state route (such as Route D, Route 100, or Route 115) through much of the city). In the city, we maintain just the driving surface of Dr. MLK from the city limits to Page. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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That was earth that we removed from underneath the old ramps. We recycled/crushed the pavement from the old ramps to use as a base for the new ramps, and so we put all the extra earth in the mound, in case we need it for some project in the future. There was plenty of space to store it -- we will be planting grass on it to prevent erosion and make sure that it doesn't look unsightly, and it's much cheaper to store the earth there in case we need it for something in the future, rather than pay someone to truck it out, and then pay someone to move the earth to a new job at some time in the future. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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I've asked our traffic team to check the signal to make sure everything was working correctly. My guess is that traffic reached the light after the southbound turn had been bypassed in the cycle, or someone didn't pull into the detection zone far enough, or was too far past the zone. Typically, the stop bar marks where vehicle detection begins. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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Afternoon,
I'm sure it's going to come down to "driver behavior" but WB I-64 to NB 270 ramps in the AM (and vice versa in the PM), traffic backs up for long distances because everyone tries to do very short merges into stopped traffic. This morning, traffic on 64 was backed up to Clayton overpass because of this line of traffic merging causing a rolling backup. Are there any effective ways to change this behavior of short-merging? The lanes of all the entrance ramps have more than sufficient room to continue straight and merge when safe. Just wondering, thanks for any input! -
You pretty much got it. We do, often, try to post messages on the overhead message boards to encourage people to use more of the entrance ramps when they merge in, but of course, travel times are much more important to share during morning and evening rush on those overhead boards. There may also be a slight concern about creating the perception that they are "rushing to the front of the line" and cutting people off if they use the full ramp. Ideally, merging requires a certain amount of cooperation between the drivers merging, and the line of traffic being merged into. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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After many years of fighting potholes, ruts, uneven pavement... basically 3rd world conditions, when is Big Bend finally going to be resurfaced between Clayton & Manchester? This is destroying our vehicle suspension and today, my dad and I counted a whopping TWO workers just screwing around in Richmond Heights.
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Pavement conditions on Big Bend are certainly challenging, and we regret the frustration and inconvenience associated with our improvement project and Missouri American Water Company's concurrent work within our project limits. The water company is expected to have its water main replacement project complete by late August/early September. However, we won't be able to resurface Big Bend until next year. (Our project runs from Manchester north to Delmar - a total of three miles.) In the meantime, our contractor will continue to remove and replace damaged sidewalks and curb and construct wheelchair-accessible ramps throughout the length of the project. David Wrone, St. Louis County -
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I’d like to tailgate onto Casestudy’s post/question… Is road paint the most-expensive liquid on the planet? Are striping machines as expensive as a Space Shuttle? It seems like it’s used very sparingly throughout the metro area as A LOT of roads need to be re-striped now and on a more frequent basis. The long-turn intersections like Brentwood Blvd & 64/40 entries and exits, Big Bend & 141 have virtually no lines guiding cars through the turns and also long stretches of interstates that are seriously lacking defined boundaries. When it rains roads become the Wild West as far as who is entitled to what space each car is to occupy because the lines are practically invisible. In general I’d like to request MODOT increase the budget (or whatever) to re-stripe our roadways more frequently and with better paint that lasts and performs better in all conditions as an effort to help keep everyone safe.
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We have more than 6,800 lane miles just in the greater St. Louis area (that is one mile of one lane of a road in one direction) that we maintain. As long as the weather is good, and our equipment is working, we are out working on stripes around the area -- either touching up areas that have worn down or making sure there is a fresh coat of paint on them. Because there is a lot of traffic on intersections, you get a lot of dirt and friction on stripes that wear them down fairly question. As far as rain, the glass beads we use in the roadway paint is about the same reflectivity as rain, so when you get one of the deluges common in the area, you can lose the lines for short periods. We do use in-laid pavement markers to try to give a bit more definition to the lanes, but at this time, we are still trying to evaluate the best use of said markers to provide safe roadways and help with lane identification at night in the rain. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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On I-44, just north of downtown and before the 10th street exit, there needs to be some kind of retention wall or drainage system set up. Rain water is flowing down the slope next to the highway, pulling soil along with it, and it could be hazardous as it sits in the shoulder.
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Is there any chance of a left turn lane being built for Manchester Road, between McKnight and Lindbergh Blvd? I suspect this has been raised and dismissed due to cost. The area is densely populated, and the obsolete commercial developments have dangerous parking access directly to Manchester (especially in Rock Hill). I know it isn't easy, or cheap, but this seems like a problem worth solving....at least to me! Your thoughts?
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We have no plans, nor funding identified, to widen Manchester road in that area at this time. We do have a resurfacing and sidewalk project coming up in that area next year. You can see the specifics here: Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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We have a resurfacing project set for that stretch of Olive Boulevard in 2021. Typically, there isn't a lot that can be done with shallow pot holes, as any patch usually breaks right back out, but I have asked our maintenance team to check the area out to see if there is anything they can do to help hold the area together until the resurfacing project. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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What can be done to encourage contractors to get finished asap once most of the heavy work on a project is done? The pace of work on median work on 141 between 21 and 55 has slowed to a crawl since the concrete work was completed, yet the zone and reduced speed remains up.
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We still have a great deal of work to complete along Route 141 prior to the resurfacing portion of the project. Crews are still out daily along the entire corridor, but there are certain items that have to be completed before the resurfacing -- many of those items are temperature or weather dependent. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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It appears that a large portion of the exit ramp from NB 55 to River City Blvd is being allocated to the bike trail. How is the allocation of space determined? This looks like it will be a very sharp right turn for the drivers once complete. It also seems like a large amount of work and expense to build a bridge across River Des Peres when the bridge just a quarter of a mile away at Alabama was reconfigured just a few years ago giving a full dedicated lane to the bike trail.
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Great Rivers Greenway is constructing the trail under permit. As a part of obtaining that permit, they have to meet all the design requirements/standards for any state maintained roadways. You would have to talk to GRG about their choices on the location and infrastructure for their trail. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications