Happy New Year - Highway 40 is closed
Just about the time that you’ll be recovering from your New Year’s Eve revelry, road blocks will go up if your daily commute is on Highway 40 between Ballas Road and I-170.
Before the morning rush hour on Jan. 2, crews will set up blockades in both directions at Ballas Road on the west and at I-170 and Brentwood Boulevard on the eastern edge of the closure.
Today’s story by reporter Elisa Crouch explains that state contractors will immediately begin demolishing bridges over Lindbergh Boulevard, Brentwood Boulevard, and Clayton and Warson roads.
Once work west of I-170 ends, crews will close lanes from I-170 to Kingshighway until late 2009.
âThere will be significant delays if people do not change their commuting times and habits,” said Ed Hassinger, district engineer for the Transportation Department.
With the first long-term closure coming in two months and four days from today, have you altered your daily commute or made alternate plans for getting to work, school or anyplace else in the path of the road project?
I just wish someone would fix the damn potholes before they become craters.
This construction will split the St. Louis County in halves: East and West with the richest in Ladue/Town & Country in the middle.
Let’s visit the mansions near 64/40 every morning/evening.
Say good bye to Busch Stadium and Galleria for 2008.
Rachel #28,
Get CCW and training. You’ll be fine.
I never understood why that Grand station is where it’s at. Scary.
Just think 13 ½ months.
I am fortunate that I do not have to commute through this mess.
Just think 13 ½ months.
I genuinely feel badly for those whose lives and pocketbooks will be seriously affected by this project.
Why think 13 ½ months?
Because that is the amount of time it took to build the whole darned Empire State Building using 1930s technology.
And how many years is it going to take to demolish and reconstruct a few miles of highway and a few bridges?
Complain loudly and bitterly to the politicians responsible for this mess. It may not help now, but could impact future boondoggles.
Here’s why I’m NOT looking forward to the highway shut-down! I live in Creve Coeur, have a family business off Lindbergh and my daughter attends Visitation Academy at Ballas and 40. The intersection in front of her school is a mess right now, even on a good day! It’s going to be a HUGE jam come January! I don’t even know how I’ll make it to work!
Rebuilding highway 40 is going to be a mess whether you close the highway or not. I think everyone would akin this to the Band-Aid Procedure where you either endure a short amount of relatively high pain or longer amounts of pain at a lower pain level.
Everyone complains about pain but choosing the method that ends it rather quickly and costs less money is definitely appealing. It’s going to be a mess regardless. Better short and inexpensive than long and several millions later for the same result.
Without access from Brentwood Blvd to Highway 40, I think Eager Road will become even more of a parking lot than it already is. The Galleria and the shops along Eager will suffer. I’ve put a map together to show the major ramp closures and alternate routes to the Galleria — since St. Louisans have to do their shopping! You can see it at http://highway40insight.com
Yes jimmer, I’ve been thinking the same thing regarding the Empire building
and wondering why in 2007 our project must take so long. But, this is Missouri.
#7 whartonMBA said :
MODOT is worse than just dumb - they are dangerous.
Shutting down a major traffic artery like Hwy 40 for YEARS will destroy businesses, cause massive financial damage and drive away industry and tourism in numbers that can probably never be fully measured. Couple this with the major construction going on on each and every single major highway in the are (70, 270, 170, etc.) and St. Louis is a laughing stock.
That these people were allowed to pull off such an ill-advised and financially devastating stunt is nothing short of amazing to me.
I promise, if I were a major corporation and I was looking to relocate to the midwest - or worse - was looking for an excuse to relocate OUT of the midwest - the severing of every major traffic artery for several YEARS would be the only thing I’d need to know about St. Louis.
That gigantic POP you’re going to hear on January 2nd is the air rushing in to fill the vacuum where commerce and tourism USED to be in St. Louis before someone was allowed to choke the city to death with endless construction and inconvenience.
I had read that there were legislators trying desperately to stop these fools with lawsuits and legal action - but - apparently they aren’t able to get it done.
What a shame for a city already struggling with it’s civic pride.
Mac
http://www.brownsludge.com