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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Last week, a chat participant asked: "What is taking so long to get road improvements done in St. Louis County? Didn't you all get Federal monies back in the beginning of of the pandemic to help address the deterioration of County roads?"Our answer: The St. Louis County Council didn’t allocate any COVID relief funds for transportation improvements. Also, for a variety of reasons, the Federal Infrastructure bill offers little funding relief to us, as few of the legislation’s grants are applicable to our needs for maintenance, safety or pedestrian improvements. At present, we’ve only been able to pursue four infrastructure bill grants.We of course routinely apply for federal monies available in other programs. However, such grants typically require a minimum 20 percent match from St. Louis County. To be competitive in the pursuit of a given grant, we often need to allocate significantly more than that 20 percent figure – which poses additional (and ironic) challenges, given the fact we pursue the federal grants in the first place because we lack adequate financial resources to fully fund projects on our own. If we’re applying for a federal grant to help finance a $10 million project, we do so with the knowledge that we’ll have to allocate a minimum of $2 million.Given the fact that we’re short tens of millions of dollars annually to maintain our transportation network, we’re therefore very limited in our ability to seek those federal dollars. We expect conditions to continue to decline throughout our 3,200-lane-mile road and street system in coming years unless significant, additional transportation funding is made available. David G. Wrone, St. Louis County’s Department of Transportation -
Also last week, a motorist asked: "Any updates on the traffic signal on Laclede Station Road in front of Gotsch School? It runs on a red/yellow/green cycle 24 hours a day, including non-school hours. It's frustrating to sit at a red light in the middle of the night with no other traffic around. Appreciate your input."Our answer: This signal operates properly during daytime hours - i.e., signal cycles are prompted by vehicle sensing loops imbedded in the pavement. However, there may be an issue during evening hours - roughly between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. - that we're continuing to investigate. David G. Wrone, St. Louis County's Department of Transportation
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Following up on a topic that a different poster inquired about three to five years ago. As interstate lighting bulbs burn out, will MoDOT replace the high-pressure sodium bulbs with LED equivalents?
The LED alternative seems to give more light and save energy dollars.
Thank you and Happy St. Patrick's Day to the Road Crew. -
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The signal at Woodson/McKnight and Olive is properly configured for traffic during the normal business day.
However, after hours it is very curiously timed – giving 30 seconds of green light time for the 2-lane Woodson/McKnight and only 10 seconds of green light time to the much busier 4-lane Olive. The 30 seconds of green for Woodson/McKnight includes 10 seconds of walk-light time plus a 20-second countdown on the west side of the intersection crossing Olive. The Woodson/McKnight green also changes to yellow when the countdown has 3 seconds left.
My guess is someone “meant to do that” for all this, but what is the reason? -
I've reached out to our traffic team to see if they might be able to provide any insight. It could have to do with recent development in that area. Although I haven't heard anything back at this time, I will share information in a future chat if I get it. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications