Questions about highway construction or traffic lights? Ask the Road Crew, 1 p.m.
Ask the 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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Thank you for hosting these chats. There is a pothole on eastbound I-64 in the right hand lane past the 22nd on ramp and before the 14th street exit. Can you please fix this? I have hit it every day this week as it is hard to see in the dark. Thanks for all that you do! -
Thanks for letting us know -- I have shared that with our maintenance team. As a reminder, you can share information on roadway concerns on interstates and state numbered and lettered routes with our customer service team, 24/7 at 1-314-275-1500 or 1-888-ASK-MODOT (275-6636). Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications -
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Currently, the protected left there is only turned off in the morning -- our traffic team will take a look at the signal this afternoon to see if there is an issue with the detector or with the device that controls the signal. They've told me that they have now troubleshot the issue and repaired it. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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Traveling along many of our interstates in the STL metro area...the trash really collects along the medians and shoulders where concrete barriers are placed and weeds are growing out of many of the sewers along those barriers. i.e. I-270 from Olive up to I-70; 364 from I-270 to Missouri River; !-64 from I-270 into the city exits/entrances near Busch Stadium. It really dumbs down the aesthetics if our city for those tourists, passers through and locals. Please address ASAP please. Thank you.
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Crews are out regularly cleaning up the more than 6,000 miles of shoulder that MoDOT maintains in the greater St. Louis area, as weather and other priorities permit. For instance, in roughly the past two weeks, crews have picked up more than 200 tons of debris along the roadway. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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On I-44, between Valley Park and Times Beach, there is an enormous hill that is unique - to my knowledge - among the Missouri interstates. It is really steep. It makes me a bit queasy, going down it, in fact.
My question is: why didn’t modot carve through the hill, like it regularly did in other places around the Saint Louis area? Why retain the hill, at that location, and level hills nearly every where else?
While dynamite and hauling is expensive - the fact that it is the only hill anywhere near that size (in the STL area) makes me wonder if there is another reason. Other hills that were in the path of the interstates are no more; this one remains! Why?
Thanks for any reply. -
That is a very good question. Although the individuals who were responsible for the construction of the roadway in that area have long since retired, so we can't ask them for their thought processes, I would imagine most of that is due to the potential for flooding, due to the closeness of the Meramec River, as well as because the land rises in that location, and there really isn't a far side of the rise that would work for a cut through. Roadway projects, even those done in the early days of the interstate construction, needed to find a balance between the ease of use of the roadway and the potential cost to construct it. Perhaps some other readers may have some insight into this. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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There is ton of small debris...mulch, trash, etc. accumulating on the flyover ramps at highway 44 and 141. I would assume some of it is due to composting materials falling out of vehicles from a nearby compost company. Does MODOT ever use street cleaners to clean these ramps?
In addition, the ramp design exiting 270 to westbound 44 is terrible. Why did they design it so that there's a possibility of 3 lanes merging in one small area (south and northbound 270 as well as 44 west traffic exiting for Soccer Park road)?
Thank you. -
We do certainly sweep our roadways and ramps, as weather and priorities permit. I have passed your observations along to our maintenance team. I am also told that we are currently sweeping much of I-44 this week.As far as the I-270 ramp to westbound I-44, you have a lot of traffic entering and exiting the interstate in a very small area. You have traffic from Lindbergh, traffic from Watson Road and traffic from northbound and southbound I-270 all merging into one area, and then trying to adjust for traffic exiting I-44 at Soccer Park road. All that traffic means a lot of weaving onto and off the interstate, and the collector-distributor roadway helps significantly minimize the locations of that weaving before traffic is able to enter westbound I-44. Before the updated interchange, traffic for the Soccer Park would be crossing all lanes of westbound I-44 to exit, and traffic from I-270 would be trying to get up to speed and merge onto westbound I-44 as quickly as possible. The current design limits the number of lanes people have as they are jockeying for position and smooths out the flow of traffic moving onto westbound I-44. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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Any updates on the school traffic signal on Laclede Station Road in front of Gotsch School? It runs through its red/yellow/green cycle 24/7 including non school hours. It's frustrating to sit at a red light there in the middle of the night with no other traffic around. Appreciate your input.
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There are two new roundabouts on the construction of I- 270 (Pershall at Flo Valley and Dunn Rd west of Bellefontaine Rd). Both have been sights of accidents and near accidents and the total project is not yet complete. The rounds are too curved for the space allowed. Why would they create this situation when it's obviously flawed?
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Generally speaking, roundabouts are a much safer intersection than the traditional cross-type intersection, as you have fewer points where traffic can approach each other head on, or directly from the side. Head-on and T-bone traffic crashes are the ones which tend to cause the most damage. You can see more on roundabouts here: Roundabouts | Missouri Department of Transportation (modot.org). In addition, new features in a construction project often take a little time for people to get used to. There is a lot changing within the corridor, and people are encouraged to pay attention as they move through the corridor and travel at the appropriate, work zone speeds to ensure that they have the time and space to identify and respond to new traffic patterns. I am checking with our I-270 team to see if they have further insight on the issue. If I get any additional information, I will share it in a future chat. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications.