SchwaSTL: I'm enjoying the construction photos on The New I-64 web site. I'm curious about the progress around the Clayton/Oakland area... would it be possible for your office to snap some photos of the progress there and post them to the site?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: I just shot some there yesterday. I'll post them when we're done here.

Dan

stlroger: It's 2:00 on 3-25 and there is no place to enter a question for the current discussion. So, I am going to the 4-1 discussion to enter this.
Two questions about the McNight exit from I-64.
Why couldn’t the exit be just a bit larger and allow the lanes to be stripped further back towards 64? As it is, cars frequently jockey past each other trying to get past cars turning the other direction.
Also, when westbound on I-64 approaching the McNight exit in the far left lane, the solid line on the left makes a swerve towards the shoulder of the road making it look like the lane is moving over. Later, the solid line comes back. I’ve seen numerous cars think they have to move over and then have pull back into the actual lane. Not important but it would be nice if it could be fixed.

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: I apologize for last week. We had some troubles with the chatroom and it closed out on us. I'm glad you entered your questions for this week.

The McKnight interchange could not be any larger because we were trying to keep our property takings as minimal as possible. Also McKnight Road is a small residential road with only one lane in each direction. The cities at that interchange and along McKnight did not want a large interchange built for a residential area. Drivers should be patient and wait their turn to get toward the top of the ramp and then get in the right or left turn lane.

Dan and I have not noticed the stripe issue you mentioned. We will check into that. The permanent striping will be installed on the westbound lanes in the next couple of months. If there is something that needs to be corrected there, the crews have the chance to do that with the permanent striping.

Linda Wilson

gusmcrae1: How is the progress with the Oakland Bridge? When do you think it will open and the Clayton Bridge will close?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: Oakland will be completed later this summer, sometime in July. Once that reopens we'll demo Clayton.

Dan

buran: Something needs to be done to improve safety at the McKnight exit at I-64. When crossing the bridge southbound, drivers frequently go straight from the left-only lane (as painted lane markings indicate), cutting off drivers going straight from the straight-only lane; I've nearly been struck once and seen several others cut off -- this just over the past several days. There should be more indicators to drivers that the left lane is a turn-only lane --maybe a sign on the light pole, and more arrows should be added (or existing ones given black borders, like the lane stripes have). The traffic light should also have a green left arrow, if it doesn't already, as a further indication to drivers not to cut off other traffic.

As a side concern, why are Jersey barriers being used in place of some guardrail on the McKnight N to 64 E onramp? This has been the case since the first day I used the new intersection, a few days after the western half of the project was reopened. I remember reading that the barriers were supposed to be replaced by a metal guardrail, but this hasn't been done and the pavement is still quite rough although the weather is now warming. These things give the intersection a still-unfinished look.

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: We have been working very closely with St. Louis County regarding the lanes on McKnight. We have recently restriped it to more clearly define that it is a single lane in the right and then the left lane comes off of that if you need to make a left. There are numerous stripes added to the road to indicate the left turn lane. The McKnight interchange has always had the right lane as a straight lane and the left lane as the turn lane. The new interchange is no different. We are going to keep monitoring this with St. Louis County.

We do have the final layers of asphalt left to put on the McKnight bridge. The material we use for these top layers is temperature sensitive and the work has to be done at night. We are waiting for night time temperatures to consistently stay above freezing and preferrably above 40 to do this work. We expect this to be done in the next month or so. The barrier will also be replaced with guardrail. We had a tractor trailer try to make a u-turn on the bridge the first day and it took out the guardrail.

Linda Wilson

Derric Smith: Is there a chance that 40 could reopen from Kingshighway to Clayton Rd before the rest opens up?since there are no over or under passes on that section of highway could we see it open by the time the Hampton over pass reopens or soon there after?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: No, the problem with that is the Clayton/Skinker intersection then becomes the end of the freeway. That intersection is already pretty bad, I'd hate to see what it would look like with everyone trying to get on and off I-64 adding to the congestion. We'll be working on that area of the project anyway, tying Hampton and Kingshighway into the mainline so it won't be sitting there unused for any length of time. Hampton reopens one lane each way in about six weeks and won't be completely finished until July 4th, so we'll have plenty to do on the mainline during and after that.

Dan