Hanley/Eager overhaul
St. Louis County released details Monday about the overhaul planned for that mess-of-an-intersection we fondly know as Hanley Road, Eager Road and Highway 40. After months of negotiations, the county is contracting with Gateway Constructors to build a $6 million “jug handle” interchange there, at the same time Gateway rebuilds the Hanley bridge over Highway 40.
In January or sooner, Hanley Road is expected to close, and for eight months (the closing will coincide with Highway 40 reopening between Ballas and I-170, and closing between I-170 and Kingshighway). The future interchange will allow drivers to make left turns without clogging up the through lanes (see drawing below). Drivers on northbound Hanley will not have direct access to Eager; they’ll turn right onto Dale Avenue, drive past the Metro parking garage, and then onto Eager. Several jug handles are on Lindbergh Boulevard, between Olive and Manchester.
For years, the county wanted to build a tunnel connecting the center lane of northbound Hanley to westbound Eager. The cost estimates shot up to $40 million to $50 million.
The controversial aspect here will be time. Rebuilding the Hanley Road overpass would have taken about six months, by Gateway’s estimate. Adding the interchange to the project will make the work last eight months. And, for a while, Hanley and Big Bend will be closed at the same time. Big Bend is scheduled to close for bridge reconstruction by June, 2008, and Hanley might not reopen until August.
Well, pigs must be flying outside right now because this proves to me that traffic engineers DO exist in St. Louis. This is an ingenious idea for that intersection. But where does southbound Hanley access westbound Eager?
According the plan in December, drivers on southbound Hanley WILL NOT be able to get to westbound Eager at the intersection. They’ll have to turn onto an extension of Dale Avenue, go past the MetroLink garage, and get onto Eager from there. The plan may have changed, though. We’ll know more Monday.
This is pretty good. Not thrilled about the left turn from the exit road to NB Hanley, and the left turn from SB Hanley to the exit road. However, short of flyovers, this is probably the best MoDot can do.
This is pretty good???? Are you kidding? They’ve completely shut off access to Eager Rd from southbound Hanley. Why do something like this? How are we supposed access Eager Road if you’re driving south? Do I have to do a u-turn at Dale? Because that’s what people are going to start doing. This is going to make driving in that area impossibly frustrating. It’s already bad, and this just makes it worse.
Half-baked concept.
Isolates the Eager shopping centers
from the SE Clayton customer base.
Oh! I got it! We can park our Beamers at
the downtown Clayton Transit Garage, catch the
Southbound Metro-Link, and walk from the
tracks to Dierbergs!
Sure. It’ll work.
People going south on Hanley can just take a right at Dale and swing around by the Metrolink tracks to come back up to Eager by the Best Buy, it’s not that big of a deal. If I travel South on I-70 I can’t get directly to westbound 64, I’ve got to get off the highway and take city streets.
Perhaps MoDot could use signage to direct people from SB Hanley to Eager Rd. via the Dale Ave. route. As I am unfamiliar with the area, I would have no idea how to get there.
Let’s all just simmer down a bit, the article says there will be better details in the paper on Monday.. Besides, there are so many strip malls and shopping centers around now, you can just go somewhere else thats more convenient. They’re being built EVERYWHERE!!
All you have to do is either go just past the old purina site on Hanley and make a right there (takes you around Best Buy to Eager) or go just past Houlihans and make a right on Strassner and loop back to the shops through the office park.
The option for southbound drivers to go to Eager assumes that the loop road (that is the road across from Dale) will ever open. This plan is not totally without merit, but I do feel an alternative should be considered to give southbound traffic access.
And the idiot who is closing Hanley and Big Bend at the same time? Already Hanley and Clayton is an intersection to be avoided, when these two streets are closed simultaneously, Brentwood and Skinker will be next to impassable.
There may be strip malls popping up everywhere, but this is where I live (northeast of this intersection) and this is where I want to shop. Look up the next closest location for Best Buy, Dierbergs, Target and my favorite Golf Galaxy.