Kristi Evans: Is there any plan to place a southbound exit from Big Bend to 270 and/or a northbound exit off 270 onto Big Bend?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: No. There is a railroad bridge just south of Big Bend on I-270. We don't have the room to add the ramps with the railroad bridge there. It is extremely difficult and cost prohibitive to move a railroad, so therefore, Big Bend will stay with just the two ramps.
There is a full interchange at Dougherty Ferry and I-270 and it was recently improved with a new bridge and longer ramps.

Linda Wilson

Brian: When traveling on I-64/40 East to I-170 North via the fly-over ramp, you can see that there is some crumbling concrete on the south side of the I-170 South to I-64/40 West flyover ramp. Can you please have somebody check this out? I would hate for this to become an big problem in the future. It is at the peak of the mound of dirt that lies against the 170 South to 64 West bridge.

Thanks.

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: It is actually fill material and not crumbling concrete, although it does look like that when you drive past. You will notice there is a retaining wall on either side and in the middle there is a small amount of dirt. The retaining wall has a nice edge to it and the dirt does not, so it makes it look very undone. The bridge is completely fine and there is not crumbling concrete. It just looks unfinished. We are working with the contractor to make this look a little nicer.

Linda Wilson

Bwood: Thanks for doing these chats. I was just curious why the concrete plant is being disassembled before paving the south collector/distributor road?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: We needed it out of the way so we could get started on building the north collector/distributor that will connect Hanley with Brentwood. There is a lot of excavation that needs to happen there so it made more sense to break down the plant and bring in the concrete from outside than to keep the plant running.

Dan

Frank: Has a speed limit been decided upon for the collectors between Brentwood and Hanley? Please tell me it will 40+. Thanks!

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: The connector roads between Brentwood and Hanley will be signed at 40 mph.

Linda Wilson

Nathan: Now that the Highway 40/64 project is coming to an end in the next couple months I assume there has been a decision on the if the Watson exit will reopen. Do you know what that decision is?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: Our traffic engineers have modeled the traffic at I-270 and I-44 and we have made a decision to return the ramp to I-44 to a single lane loop instead of a double and to reopen the I-44 ramp to Watson Road. These changes will be made along with the contract to resurface and restripe I-44 back to four lanes with shoulders. The resurfacing work will start in spring 2010 and is scheduled to be complete by November 2010. The striping work is the last part of the work. It will not be until Fall 2010 before the stiping is done on I-44, the I-270 loop and the exit ramp to Watson Road. Then the ramp to Watson will reopen.

Linda Wilson