Ask the Road Crew your highway construction and stoplight questions, 1 p.m. Wednesday
Ask the Road Crew, experts from the Missouri Department of Transportation, St. Louis and St. Charles counties and St. Louis City, your questions about highways and roads. The live chat starts at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
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Hi Andrew and thanks for taking questions. Driving on Watson, either direction/any time/any day, the signals seem to have no coordination at all between Sappington and Elm. Often cars have to come to repeated stops: Sappington, Schnucks, Aldi, Watson Industrial, Pardee, Grant, Elm.. I often have to stop at every one, all in a row, with the next one turning red just as the current one turns green. Do the signals actually communicate with each other?
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Corridors, such at Watson Road, are optimized for traffic flow. During period of heavy traffic (for instance morning or evening rush) signals give more time to the direction that typically has the most traffic (where the rush traffic is going) . The goal is, as much as possible, to have a driver who is traveling through the corridor in the direction of rush traffic, at the posted speed limit, stop as little as possible. That often means that the other direction will have to stop more (as there is limited amount of time that traffic crossing the corridor has to do so). That is why, when people have specific concerns about signal timing, we ask for direction and time (that can help us determine if if is issue where the traffic flow is optimized for the opposite direction). As you can imagine, this requires a lot of calculations and is often a work is progress as traffic patterns change. We do have engineers monitoring our signals and they can make changes on the fly if there is a crash or other incident which is pushing more traffic than usual onto a corridor. Outside of rush periods, when traffic levels are lower, the signals will often use detection to determine if there is traffic in a certain direction and change to move that traffic through. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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Thanks Andrew, I certainly understand the complexity and the fact that timings change. I was just wondering if there was supposed to be actual synchronisation. In other words, when eastbound Watson at Pardee gets a green, does the signal at Grant "know" that Pardee just got a green and adjust its behavior accordingly? Or do they all act independently of each other? If they're supposed to be synchronised, I can go through my route GPS logs (I drive commercially) and give you specific instances. But if they're not, then it might not be of any use to you.
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At most, signals along an optimized corridor are coordinated (i.e. they are tied together to work together), but they are not going to change in a sequential pattern as you describe -- although the optimization would try to maximize that as much as possible. However, synchronization as you describe might interfere with the optimization on the intersecting corridor. However, if you see something that seems to stand out, I can certainly share it with our traffic team -- we can often make tweaks to help improve flow. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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Are there any plans to construct a new intersection or roundabout at Hwy 94, Central School Rd., and St Peters-Howell Rd. in St. Charles County? The exit from Hwy 94 onto the North Outer Rd. doesn’t allow enough space to move into position to navigate the immediate intersection that is within feet of the exit. I’ve seen several accidents as a result.
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I'm not sure if this addresses the full question, but the County is working on improvements to the intersection of Central School and St. Peters-Howell Roads.
This project will upgrade the intersection at Central School and St. Peters-Howell roads, improve traffic flow and reduce congestion during peak traffic periods, and improve safety and pedestrian access. Proposed improvements include:
- Widening St. Peters-Howell Road to provide dual southbound left turn lanes.
- Widening Central School Road to provide a second westbound through lane.
- Widening Central School Road between St. Peters-Howell Road and the Route 364 westbound ramps to provide a second eastbound through lane.
- Modifying the traffic signal and including ADA-compliant pedestrian facilities.
- Modifying the existing drainage system.
Central School and St. Peters-Howell Roads | St Charles County, MO - Official Website
Project information for Highway construction improvements at Central School and St. Peters-Howell roads -
Just an observation and I know it's an enforcement issue. But, I see A LOT of cars with temporary tags on them, many of them expired in 2020 and quite a few in 2019!. This means they're not paying the state sales tax or personal property tax. That's all revenue that could be collected and possibly used for many things in our state...namely roads! Is the state thinking of changing the way they collect the sales tax? I heard in IL that you have to pay the tax before you can take your car off the dealer's lot.
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MoDOT funding comes primarily from gas tax, drivers license fees and vehicle licensing fees, not directly from state sales tax or personal property tax. Although not collecting licensing fees would impact the funds available for the roadways, changing how that is collected would be the purview of the Department of Revenue, and may even have to come through legislative action. You are correct, though, enforcing license plate issues is the responsibility of law enforcement. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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As part of the I-44 work finishing up between Jefferson and Lafayette, will the westbound ramp from Lafayette be resurfaced? There a multiple potholes right at the entrance to the ramp that were fixed a few weeks ago, but are now back. There is also a pothole further up the ramp.
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At the intersection of Lindbergh and Sunset Hills Plaza, the sensor that detects southbound traffic waiting to make a left (i.e. across Lindbergh to the plaza with Longhorn/Tile Shop/etc) appears to be malfunctioning. A green arrow is given to southbound traffic on almost every cycle even if no cars are waiting to make a left (which is the majority of the time). This is occurring any time/any day.
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It's an interchange redesign. You can see more on the project page here: Interchange | 39 North AgTech Innovation District (39northstl.com). Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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