Rick: When do you plan on pouring the remainder of the Clayton/Warson Bridge?

Also, I've noticed on the new smaller bridges (Mcknight, Boland, etc.)that there are no drains coming off the side for rain water/snow melt. How is this water designed to drain off?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: The next Clayton/Warson bridge deck pour is scheduled for late next week.

The smaller bridges are small enough that the water can flow against the outside curbs and off the ends of the bridge.

Linda Wilson

Nicholas: When the Hampton bridge shuts down, what highway exit or entrance ramps will still be in use? I have heard different answers.
Also, where will northbound Hampton traffic be directed to turn east or west?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: When the Hampton bridge over I-64 closes on September 22, the initial plan is to have the ramps on the north side remain open with limited access into the park. So the westbound I-64 ramp to go north into the Park will be open and from the Park you can take the ramp to westbound I-64. That is it. All other ramps and access will be closed September 22. These two open ramps will only be open for a few months and then we will close I-64 for all of 2009. Primarily, we have focused our information on Hampton to say that it is closed completely because these two ramps are short term and it is confusing to remember which ones are open and closed.

We will have message boards at Hampton and I-44 warning of the closure of Hampton at I-64. The final signage will be at Hampton and Oakland telling drivers they must turn east or west on Oakland. It is important to realize that the Hampton and Oakland intersection will be reduced to one lane in each direction with stop signs when the Hampton bridge closes.

Linda Wilson

CJ: Do you still plan on having access to northbound 170 from Eager available in October? Access for northbound traffic on Brentwood or Hanley is a real mess now.

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: The access from Eager to northbound I-170 should be reopened later this Fall, maybe sometime in late October, but we don't have a solid date on that yet. There is a lot of work to be completed before this can happen. Traffic coming southbound I-170 to Eager will be moved over slightly next week to make room for more bridge work and excavation. The third bridge over I-170 will then be put up and additional grading and paving work needs to occur under the bridge after that. Finally they can get to the final pavement for both north and southbound access to I-170 under these three new bridges and then southbound ramp can be moved over to its final location and the northbound access can open.

Linda Wilson

Rick: When are you going to pour the two bridges over I-170?

Also, when will the new lanes on I-170 at Eager open so that you can do the other collector bridge?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: See my other answer on this question. The bridges over I-170 will be poured later this fall. They are working on moving the traffic over under the bridges so they can do further excavating and get the clearance to put up the third bridge.

Linda Wilson

k: Last week this question and answer was posed below... my question is, can making a more permanent fix to this area be a project in the near future, because clearly what has been done with this temporary condition has worked well?

Alex: Is MO-DOT considering keeping the fourth lane on EB I-70 between I-270 and St. Charles Rock Road after the I-64 project is completed? As soon as that lane was added and the lanes from I-270 had a dedicated lane to flow into on I-70 the bottleneck that existed on NB I-270 disappeared on normal traffic days. This was before 40 was closed, and even with the increased traffic after the closure, the I-270 & I-70 interchange is much better than it was before I-70 was restriped.
Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: The Federal Highway Administration gave MoDOT temporary approval to temporarily restripe I-70 and I-44 to add an extra lane in each direction. We will be returning both highways back to the original condition in 2010, after I-64 is complete. The temporary striping has reduced the lane and shoulder widths and therefore we cannot keep this as the long term condition.

Linda Wilson

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: As I discussed last week, the temporary restriping cannot stay. Another issue we are dealing with is the fast lane is driving on the grates on the shoulder and that is OK short term but not long term. In order to permanently have four lanes in each direction, we would have to buy property and widen the highway. There are no plans in the St Louis Region's Long-Range Transportation Plan to do this. We agree that this temporary striping has really helped the operations of this stretch of road, but the condition of the road and width of the road does not allow us to do this long term. It would take a major project that is not funded or planned for by the region's leaders at this time.

Linda Wilson