Joann Berger has lived next to the McCausland Avenue on-ramp to eastbound Highway 40 for more than 20 years.

But something has happened during the past couple of years that has made life worse near the highway.

“It’s bad,” Berger told Ride last week.

For some reason, Berger said, the truck traffic picked up while the western end of Highway 40 (Interstate 64) was closed for reconstruction a few years back. She figures a truck accelerates up the ramp every seven to nine minutes.

“We’ve timed them,” she said.

The ramp is at about eye level when it passes behind her house on Wise Avenue. Berger said most of the trucks appear to originate at a Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail yard near Interstate 44 and Arsenal Avenue.

Burlington Northern spokesman Andy Williams said the trucks that come and go from the yard do not belong to the railroad, and Burlington Northern has no control over which route the drivers use.

“What we can do is help educate” the drivers, Williams said.

Last year, the city suggested that trucks leaving the rail yard use the Arsenal ramp to I-44, which is closer.

Berger has gone to the past two aldermen representing her neighborhood to find a solution. She has written letters. She plans to circulate a petition.

She has looked into sound walls — like those that line the rebuilt stretch of Highway 40. But MoDOT said spokeswoman Linda Wilson there is little that can be done to blot out the occasional truck noise.

“Sound walls don’t fix that,” she said.

The St. Louis Streets Department last week posted signs along McCausland limiting daily large semi-truck traffic to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The times are enforced by ordinance.

Berger hopes the new truck hours improve the situation, even if they won't eliminate the problem.

“I’m sure it will help a little,” Berger said.

TWO MORE PET PEEVES

We pretty much covered the landscape of your driving peeves last week, but here Diane Van Damme of Ballwin passes along two that I left out: inattentiveness and blatant disregard of high-tech navigational aids. Here’s what Diane shared:

“While driving east on Big Bend toward Dougherty Ferry Road, there are two left lanes to turn onto Dougherty Ferry. A gentleman was in the left of these two lanes and as soon as the light turned green, he cut off people in the right lane of these two because he needed to get to the shopping mall located on the northeast corner of Dougherty Ferry and Big Bend. Now that isn’t the end, he had a GPS on his dash.”

Q. Please tell me why MoDOT could not have doubled its crew and finished the Poplar Street Bridge approach project. It has been going on for nearly two years. It snarls traffic yet there are days when there has been only eight men working. Why drag the job out?

— Paul Lore

The issue isn’t so much the lack of manpower but limited funds. The reason that seismic work on the double-deck section of Highway 40 (Interstate 64) has gone on for so long is that MoDOT broke the work into separate contracts. Because the funding for this work has to compete with other projects, the work has stretched more than 10 years.

Meantime, the majority of the work is going on underneath the bridge - away from the view of passing motorists, said Deanna Venker, MoDOT's area engineer for the city of St. Louis.

Q. I live in Illinois and regularly attend St. Louis Blues home games. I drive over the Poplar Street Bridge and take the exit ramp to 9th and Clark streets. At the bottom of the ramp is a three-way light that operates on timers and does not have sensors to detect traffic. The green light for traffic on the exit ramp lasts only 15 seconds whereas the green light for traffic on Clark lasts well over a minute. Prior to Blues (and Cardinals) games, traffic backs up on the ramp and requires vehicles to wait for three or four traffic light cycles. These backups occasionally reach all the way to Highway 40 (Interstate 64), which creates a severe safety risk. I believe the city needs to put in traffic sensors at the three-way intersection which would extend the length of time for the green light for vehicles on the ramp, thus improving safety and increasing traffic flow efficiency.

— James A. Woody

Because the ramp is part of a state highway, St. Louis Traffic Commissioner Steve Runde said the city will work with MoDOT on possibly installing sensors.