Jim: Forest Park Parkway will obviously be a major artery during the 2nd leg. While drivers headed downtown on the Parkway could get off on Southbound Kingshighway and then continue east on 40/64, I would suspect most would stay on the Parkway until it rejoins 40 around Compton. Will the stoplights between Kingshighway and Grand be "re-timed" to handle the increased traffic, or does that fall out of the jurisdiction of this project?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: We have been coordinating our efforts with the City of St Louis, which is working on synchronizing all its traffic signals. The Forest Park Parkway signals are included in that.

Dan

stlroger: Is there any information on when the Jefferson Ave bridge will be opened in the city. That would save me from the congestion caused by the next shutdown.

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: The City of St Louis tells us that the Jefferson bridge will reopen by the end of the year.

Dan

catsinmo: Traffic is bad on Forest Park Parkway now. How do you expect it to be after the 40 switchover?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: We do expect Forest Park Parkway to have extremely heavy traffic when the east half of I-64 closes. It is one of the closest alternate routes. Similar to how crowded Clayton and Ladue Roads have been this past year, the Parkway will be the worst for the east half. The County and City are working hard to make sure the signals are timed and ready to go. But, part of the answer has to be the drivers. Motorists really need to consider adjusting their travel times. Try to avoid 7-8 a.m. and 4:30-5:30 p.m. MetroLink is also a great alternative and it runs right down the Parkway from Clayton all the way to downtown. If you don't need to be on the Parkway to get to your work, school or home address, you should consider taking another alternate route.

Linda Wilson

rschreckenberg: Is there any expectation that the traffic on 270 will improve as a result of the opening of the western section of 40?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: Yes.

Dan

I would add that it may get better, but there will still be a lot of people using it trying to get from I-270 to downtown or vice versus. You still won't be able to go end to end on I-64, so that means people will still have to use I-270 to I-70 or I-44 to make that move.

Linda Wilson

Kirk Boschert: I congratulate MoDOT for completing the first half early. I may have missed this question, so please bear with me. With the economy struggling as it is, would it not be prudent to keep both portions of 40/64 open until after the Christmas/Holiday shopping season. Anything that might assist people getting around to merchants this shopping season would seem a prudent thing to do.

Is this possible?

Dan Galvin and Linda Wilson: Unfortunately, it is not possible. The area at I-170 no longer has pavement on I-64. So the west half and the east half don't connect anymore. Also the ramps at I-170 will not work with both ends open at this point. So, we have to go from one to the other.
MoDOT engineers are closely monitoring traffic and will be concentrating on weekend shopping especially near the malls on the big shopping days to help move traffic as best as possible.

Linda Wilson