Road Crew chat
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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For MODOT: over the past few years, I’ve been pointing out the problems with signal for northbound Sublette at Manchester in the city of St. Louis. I travel through there once or twice every work day, usually in the early am (6:00 hour) and around lunchtime. Oftentimes, this signal simply will not cycle for Sublette traffic. It sometimes takes 5 minutes or more for it to cycle. This has happened twice this week and it is only Wednesday. It stands to reason that there are issues with the traffic detection and/or the communications with the Union Pacific tracks. This is causing a dangerous situation with motorists passing the folks who are waiting in line—they are entering the railroad ROW blind and they don’t have enough site lines to see motorists who may be turning to head south from Manchester. There is not enough traffic on Manchester to warrant the lengthy green time that Manchester sees. Especially in the early hours (aforementioned 6:00 hour), why can’t this signal be more responsive to the traffic on Sublette, like Gravois currently is during this time frame in south St. Louis city? I.e., one pulls up to the stop bar and, like magic, the signal cycles for them in short order, you know, as it should be. What is it going to take for a permanent solution here? Is someone going to have to die in a serious wreck before real action is taken? Please look into this, I think everyone has had enough with this signal. -
I have passed your concern along to our traffic team to check into the detection and communication issues.. Later this year, we are optimizing the signals along the corridor. This regular event takes a look at the traffic (which traffic is making which turns), signal timing, signal phasing (how each of the signals operate) and coordination with nearby signalized intersections. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications -
Two unrelated questions involving the Page Extension. First, I am trying to figure out the construction project at 141. Will the ramp from east bound 364 split, with those drivers wanting to go north on 141 routing under 364 and then to a stoplight on the north side of the interchange? Is that what the work under the west side of the bridge is for? I am trying to picture this and cannot find any designs on the MoDOT website. Second, when you close one direction of the Bennington Rd bridge over 364, what are the detours for drivers simply wanting to cross the bridge? The MoDOT website talks about ramps, etc., but does not explain how someone will cross from north to south, or vice versa, when one side is closed.
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Yes, the exit ramp from eastbound Route 364 will cross under the bridge and head north on 141 where the traffic from westbound Route 364 comes in. As far as Bennington work goes, the signed detour will use Lindbergh to go around any closures on Bennington. MoDOT, as a rule, has to detour traffic using state-maintained roads. That doesn't mean that other drivers who may have different routes, may choose different detours. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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The left turn bay from eastbound Olive to northbound Fee Fee is not triggering the left turn arrow. I have seen this occur multiple times over the last few days, most recently last night at 7 pm. Cars were in the turn bay throughout an entire light cycle never got the green arrow. The detection systems seems to not be responding. While out there, someone may want to also check the other side, the left turn bay for westbound Olive was getting a green arrow for a while when the bay was empty, but this seems to have stopped recently.
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Please have someone drive east bound 44 after dark. The signs are unreadable. Not sure if they just need cleaning or replacing. Literally if you didn't already know what they said you'd never know what exits they were. I've been going to report this for a number of years but never did.
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MODOT, when highway 40 was rebuilt, the ramp from highway 40 east to Hampton had no right turn on red signs for the signals. Later on, you changed this to right turn on red after stop. I drive through there from Forest Park multiple times per working day and your designer had it correct: those really should be no right turn on red. Traffic from the ramp is very unruly: blocking lanes and improper lane usage when the light is red, and blatantly rolling through the intersection any other time. The number of near misses and panic stops that I’m personally encountering and witnessing has drastically increased as of late. So much so that I think more drastic measures need to be taken: close the ramp to Hampton and force the traffic to use the ramp to Oakland. The police do not enforce traffic laws and people don’t follow signs (or signals anymore). Seriously, close the ramp to Hampton. As was proven during the rebuild of this very road, traffic will adjust to the change. Put it this way: why wait for a serious accident when you can do a better job at controlling traffic before that happens?
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Thanks for sharing your observations -- as you state, enforcing traffic laws and traffic safety is the purview of law enforcement. I'll pass your observations along to our traffic team to see if they would reconsider the "no right turn on red" signs. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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I was on Chippewa yesterday between Gravois and Kingshighway, and there were odd covers with tags on them over some parts of the road and some manhole covers. What are those for? The tags were so similar to the lane indicators that they were confusing with the sun setting directly over the roadway.
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We have a resurfacing project along Chippewa. Those covers help the utility companies locate their access points and raise them up to the correct level on the street. Doing it once the resurfacing is complete helps the utility company raise the covers to the right level. Andrew Gates, MoDOT Communications
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We regularly have crews out removing trash along the roadways -- in fact, that is where most of our crews have spent a good amount of their time -- in addition we have Adopt a Highway teams out picking up litter, and we are just now getting incarcerated crews out picking up litter along roadways after having to put that on hiatus during the pandemic. If there are areas where you are seeing trash, we can certainly pass that along. We also continue to strongly discourage people from throwing trash out of their windows when driving and encourage them to cover loads in trucks -- especially when going to a landfill. Andrew Gates, MODOT Communications
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