JHG: Last year, Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law a bill that prohibits large trucks from traveling in the far left lane on certain roads through St. Louis.

Trucks with a registered gross weight in excess of 48,000 pounds are prohibited from driving in the far left lane of urbanized highways that have at least three lanes of traffic in each direction.

I trust I-64 is included.

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: yes. I-64 is included. The legislation applies to all interstates and major freeways that have at least three lanes in each direction. MoDOT crews will be installing the no trucks in left lane signs on both the west half and the east half of the I-64 project before the end of the year.

Linda Wilson

EJetson: In response to the reversible lanes being westbound in the AM, what about relieving the traffic coming into downtown in the morning and going out of downtown in the evening?

I don't think that anyone from MODOT actually sits in the traffic to monitor it. Everyday, I see little if any traffic using the reversible lanes westbound in the morning, while eastbound 70 traffic slows to a crawl.

Everyday, when the lanes are eastbound in the afternoon, the eastbound traffic gets much worse because 4 lanes (3 on 70 plus one of the reversible) have to merge into 2 lanes for everyone going to Illinois. As everyone who has ever sat in traffic knows, when you reduce the number of lanes, you cause significant backups. When you reduce the number of lanes by two, you make it twice as bad. These backups never occurred when the lanes were westbound in the evenings because merging 3 to 2 didn't cause that big of a problem.

Whatever kind of "monitoring" you are doing is giving you incorrect data. Take it from someone who sits in it everyday.

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: The reversible lanes will go back to eastbound all the time after the King bridge opens, which is rescheduled for late today. There is just a marginal difference in the split of traffic using I-70 which is why it feels so painful to whichever direction is not getting to use the reversibles. The speed and volume data sensors located along I-70 and the cameras to monitor the traffic are used in the analysis of traffic. We also have MoDOT staff who drive I-70 every day in both directions. The data has consistently shown for the past year that the reversibles provide the most benefit to eastbound a.m. and in the p.m. The MLK bridge work was a specific event that we switched them for to help under those circumstances. You should see the reversibles change back to eastbound all the time later this week.

Linda Wilson

TLg5: The entire I64 project is a real feather in the cap to you two and the groups you represent. Congratulations.

A MoDOT engineer I spoke with several years ago mentioned that - if you took out the reversible lanes on I-70, there would actually be enough room to add two lanes in each direction.

I realize that this would be a monumental task, but what are the realities for rebuilding I-70 in the future. What are the obstacles?

Thanks.

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: It would be a monumental task to take out the reversible lanes on I-70 and provide more lanes in each direction. This idea was evaluated in the mid 1990s. I think with the standard width for lanes and shoulders you would gain one lane in each direction plus a shoulder. The biggest obstacles are the bridges that go over I-70 are all designed with bridge columns placed between the eastbound lanes and the reversibles and the westbound lanes and the reversibles. You also have I-70 on bridges going over local streets. There are three bridges, one carrying eastbound lanes, one for the reversibles and one for westbound lanes. In order to remove the reversibles and add another lane in each direction, you would have to rebuild all the interchanges, overpasses and bridges carrying I-70. This would be an extremely expensive project.

Linda Wilson

Brian: Will some sort of barrier be installed where the I-170 South to I-64 West fly-over bridge connects to I-64? It seems like that could be an accident hot spot once I-64 opens (say if a driver loses control of their vehicle as they are coming down the ramp on to I-64 West).
Thanks for all the hard work Gateway Constructors and MODOT have put into this project. It has been amazing to watch!

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: yes. There will be a crash barrier installed at the point where southbound I-170 splits to have the left lane go to eastbound I-64 and the right lane go to westbound I-64. The ramp will get restriped to one lane and the barrier installed before we open the highway.

Linda Wilson

gregl: Last week, you asked us to make it stop raining. We did. Now when will the highway reopen?!? (Just kidding.. I couldn't resist!)

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: it did stop for a few days, but now it is supposed to rain Thursday, Friday and next Monday. We need every day we can get. We want to open as soon as we can and with the rain days, we cannot predict yet what day that will be. As I said last week, we will not announce a date until we get into November.

Linda Wilson