Ask the Road Crew
There's construction out there, along with your regular dose of congestion on your daily commute.Ask the experts from the Road Crew (MoDOT, St. Louis and St. Louis County) all your questions about getting around St. Louis in the weekly chat on Wednesday, Aug. 1 at 1 p.m.
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Last week, one of our chatters asked about turning from Route 30 onto Delores Drive. We had a surfacing project in that area that impacted several of the detectors at that intersection. Once that detection has been reinstalled that should fix the issue. I haven't gotten any confirmation on exactly when that should happen. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications -
While driving home EB on I-70 one recent evening, I was quite surprised to see newly installed reflectors in the roadway. WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE THEY MAKE! They were installed between mile markers 213 - 215 on both sides of the Lake St. Louis overpass. Is this some kind of trial program? When will it be extended to the rest of the area? I realize there is a perpetual problem with funding, so maybe only place one reflector on the roadway instead of the two that were installed together? Anyway, they REALLY do the job. -
These are being installed as part of the improvements from our safety design-build project across the district. They are somewhat of a test program, and we would have to be able to fully determine if they can stand up to the challenges of our various weather extremes and if we are able to maintain them efficiently. At this point, we have no plans to install them elsewhere until those questions are fully answered. If we did start to install them, we would do them as part of our routine roadway maintenance, most likely as part of resurfacing projects. Andrew Gates, MoDOT communications.
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Without specifics, street signs are usually determined by the applicable municipality or county. They will often have enhanced signs -- they don't fall under the standards from the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (the nationwide standard for roadway signs). There are a few exit signs (that do fall under MUTCD) that were misprinted (for instance, the BRYAN Road sign along westbound I-44 in St. Charles County.) Since that doesn't impact the operation of the sign, that will get fixed when the sign gets replaced. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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Central Corridor motorists: Forest Park Parkway will close to all traffic from Skinker to Big Bend, effective at 6 a.m. this Friday (August 3). The road will reopen at 11:59 p.m. Monday (August 6). The closure is necessitated by Washington University's ongoing construction of a pedestrian bridge over Forest Park Parkway. Drivers may use Big Bend, Delmar and Skinker to circumvent the closure. David Wrone, St. Louis County -
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As an owner of an electric vehicle, I'd like to assure Tom from last week's column that we do in fact pay our fair share of support for Missouri road maintenance. We pay $75/year to the MO Dept of Transportation for a special fuel decal which makes up for the fuel tax not paid at the pump.
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MoDOT studied that section about 10 years ago and has a conceptual plan in place to make improvements to the S curbe and add lanes. Those improvements would cost between $50 and $120 million due in part to the face that a major rail line would have to be rerouted, or we would have to reroute the interstate over the railroad bridge. At this time, we have no funding identified for this project. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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The changes to SB 141 from Valley Park to 44 are not going to relieve SB 141 congestion in the evening once the lighter summer traffic ends. The two SB lanes still backup, with the right lane being worse as cars merge at the last possible moment from the EB 44 exit only lane. Why wasn't that far right lane made to be an exit lane for both directions of 44? There appears to be enough space to continue that lane to the WB exit.
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Continuing the right lane to the westbound I-44 exit wouldn't prevent traffic that is currently racing down the exit only lane to get ahead of other traffic, so that ramp would back up into the traffic heading for the eastbound interstate. Since more than a third of the evening traffic is heading eastbound, it would then cause further congestion around that area. Currently, we are seeing about a 4 minute run in the center lane from Big Bend to the south outer I-44 roadway. We are continuing to monitor traffic and will do so when school starts and traffic levels increase. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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I am baffled by some of the left only on left arrow intersections when there is a very clear view of oncoming traffic. One I noticed today is southbound Kingshighway turning left onto eastbound Manchester. Why not have a left turn yield sign, as northbound traffic on the bridge is so easy to see?
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There are too many lanes on Kingshighway coming north to make that a safe yielding turn. We do not put signals with flashing yellow arrows on left turns on state roadways (Manchester) that cross more than two lanes. Even though there may be good sight distance, there are significant safety concerns with making a left turn across that much potential traffic. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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A Road Crew reader has asked for an update on our improvement plans for Clayton Road, from Skinker west to the city limits of Ladue. Work is scheduled to begin later this month on this project. In addition to removing and replacing the existing pavement, our contractor will remove and replace damaged sidewalk panels and curb section, and build dozens of wheelchair accessible ramps. As is customary with projects of this nature, the sidewalk, curb and ramp work will be done first; the new pavement will likely not be constructed until '19. David Wrone, St. Louis County
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