scott: This is more of a question about the next phase than this one. Firstly, I would like to congradulate you as I think this phase went much better than expected. In the next phase Hwy 40/64 is to be shut down from 170 to Kingshighway, and being a student at St. Louis College of Pharmacy and living in St. Charles County I'm worried about getting to School. What will be done to ease congestion on Forrest Park Parkway as I belive this will become my route to school. Are there other Routes that you may suggest?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: Forest Park Parkway is under the control of St. Louis County and City. Both agencies are working to make signal improvements to the Parkway. MoDOT, the county and city all expect the Parkway to be an alternate of choice when the east half of I-64 is closed. Coming from St. Charles County, you may want to consider getting on MetroLink at the Hanley station and getting off at the station at BJC. I believe the College of Pharmacy is in the BJC complex. The city is also working on signal timing on Kingshighway so you could also consider I-70 to Kingshighway.

Linda Wilson

bowman1429: The Exit from 270 Northbound onto Hwy 40 has been backing up all the way to Manchester Rd on a regular basis. There is a dangerous accordian effect from drivers diving in at the last minute to make the exit. Drivers also seem to be overly cautious upon entering the actual exit. I've wondered if they are over reacting to the 35 MPH exit sign. This exit seems capable of handling higher speeds safely. Are there any plans to make changes to help trafic along? I've already been rear ended once at this exit and sure hope something can be done to reduce the daily risk.

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: We are aware of the backups on this ramp. There really isn't anything we can do from an engineering point of view. We do notice that motorists have compressed the rush hour back to just one hour instead of spreading out work times. There is a peak hour in the morning that this is an issue. Perhaps adjusting your work schedule slightly if possible could help you avoid the peak time. We cannot make this ramp two lanes because we have such problems with the southbound to westbound ramp which has a similiar backup problem. We are just a few months away from reopening the west half of I-64, so that will change the dynamics of traffic here too.

Linda Wilson

Joan McKenna: Dear MODOT:

I was wondering why you increasingly choose to close down highways for maintenance rather than restricting traffic? Certainly, no explanation is needed for closing Highway 40 last weekend to bring down the Hampton overpass. But, closing Highway 40 at the Boone Bridge for a safety inspection seemed like overkill and created at least one hazardous situation: 55

On Saturday evening, a St. Louis County woman in her 80s was trying to get to the horse park in Lake St. Louis (Highway N near Highway 40) for the a major horse show that she helps with every year. She's knows how to get to the show and her daughter's residence nearby but otherwise is unfamiliar with St. Charles County. Unaware that MODOT had re-opened the Boone Bridge around 5 p.m., she tried to get to the show using the Page Avenue extension. At Highway 94, she got lost. She stopped to ask a man for directions, and he drew her a map. She called her daughter, and reported where she was. Several minutes passed, and she called again to say she was in front of Francis Howell High School at Highways 94 and D and didn't know where to go. Then maybe an hour passed with no contact. It had gotten dark, and everyone was worried. She eventually did pull into the horse park and explained that she had found a couple in a shopping mall and asked them if she could pay them to let her follow them to the horse park. By this time, she had misplaced her phone in the dark. The couple declined the money and helped her. Thankfully, both times she sought help, she found kind human beings who were not interested in harming an easy target. She was shaken, to say the least. This show is usually one of the highlights of her year and is not supposed to be something that could have cost her her life.

St. Charles County is not the middle of nowhere. The bridge handles a lot of traffic on weekends, and it's a huge inconvenience and expense these days to go around. And not just an expense for drivers. I'm sure your Boone Bridge closures this year have cost Chesterfield Commons and Chesterfield Mall a lot of money, as they cut off all the St. Charles County customers.

Of course, the bigger question is why you had to close the five-mile stretch of Highway 40 for a year. Since you plan to use workers on nights and weekends to finish on time, then it's clear you could have done that from the beginning and completed it in at least half the time.

If it was a question of money, I think I speak for more than a few Missouri residents who gladly would have ponied up a few extra tax dollars to make this project end in half the time.

I know you are trying to keep your road crews safe, and we all want that. But a woman trying to go to a weekend event was put in danger herself. The lives of your construction workers are worth no less than motorists, but, they also are worth no more.

Sincerely,

Joan McKenna
St. Charles County

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: I apologize for the inconvenience the Boone Bridge closure caused your family this weekend and I'm sure the older woman was very scared for her situation. The inspection of the Boone Bridge is critically necessary and due to the extensive inspections required now since the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge, we have to close the bridge to do it. The westbound Boone Bridge was built in 1935 and is only 30 feet wide. It is very difficult to keep a lane open. So our choice is close it on a week day or a weekend. Neither option is a good one. But we also have to ensure the bridge is safe and make needed repairs so we don't have to close it permanently. The closure did end Saturday night and MoDOT immediately notified all of the news media. MoDOT also have a 24/7 customer service center. Any time in the future, you need an update on what is open or closed, you can call us at 1-888-ASK-MODOT. We are sorry for the inconvenience but we must ensure the safety of the 80,000 motorists who use the Boone bridge every day. There is never a good time for us to do our work and we just work extremely quickly to have the impact only one day.

Linda Wilson

Laura: While the new Kingshighway overpass over 40 was being constructed the Kingshighway northbound right lane over the Kingshighway bridge became a right-turn-only lane onto Manchester. This freed up traffic on the bridge immeasurably. Now that the overpass is done, it's no longer a right turn only, which blocks the flow of cars onto Manchester on a red light when only one car in that lane wants to continue north, especially congesting during morning rush hour. I can see this becoming even worse when the east side of 40 is closed. What can be done to make a dedicated right-turn-only onto Manchester permanent?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: MoDOT and the City of St. Louis traffic engineers are working together on this intersection. We did have a dedicated right while the Kingshighway over I-64 work was going on. During construction of Kingshighway at I-64, we only had two lanes going north over I-64 so it made a lot of sense to have the dedicated right turn at Manchester. The lanes were changed back when Kingshighway was opened up with three lanes. Since Hampton and I-64 closed, the volumes on northbound Kingshighway are up 25 percent. We do not want to take away one of the through lanes right now with these increased volumes. We will continue to look at this and especially after I-64 is complete determine what is the best thing to do at that time.

Linda Wilson

jz: Will the stoplight at Hampton and Oakland be replaced after Hampton since the interchange will be configured differently? Also, I know that the ramp from McCausland to WB 64 has a ramp-meter signal that will be removed. Is it even used anymore, and why was it put in? Also, when will the south to west ramp at 170 be paved?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: When the Hampton and I-64 interchange is complete, we will have a new signal at Hampton and Oakland and it will be configured a little differently. We will still need a signal there for the Oakland and Hampton traffic. The ramp meter at McCausland was put in more than a decade ago as a test for ramp meters. Many large cities have gone to ramp metering all their entrance ramps. MoDOT was examing the possibility. The ramp meter is not currently working and very soon we will have this ramp closed and the McCausland interchange will be rebuilt differently with the new highway. I don't have an exact date for the paving of the south to west ramp at I-170, but it will be sometime in the next month.

Linda Wilson