ST. LOUIS — Averting gridlock on St. Louis streets during Highway 40 (Interstate 64) reconstruction will take far more than just smarter traffic signals and fewer stop signs.

City Hall plans to spend $7 million in the next three years to smooth out the morning and evening drives. The Streets Department is working on a 24-hour dispatch hot line and plans to beef up its staff and buy two more tow trucks to move stalled cars.

Workers are about to resurface a section of South Kingshighway to keep it free of potholes for a couple of years, so maintenance crews won't need to block traffic. And new shift schedules will put more crews on the street before dawn to fix broken traffic lights and get streets ready for the morning rush.

"The whole key is these 10 rush hours a week," said Todd Waelterman, acting streets director. "We need to make those the best we can."

The massive Highway 40 rebuilding effort will hit St. Louis County harder than the city, leaders in the city predict. The $535 million project involves reconstructing about 10.5 miles of Highway 40 and its bridges from just west of Spoede Road in Frontenac to just east of Kingshighway in St. Louis, and the southern tip of Interstate 170 in Richmond Heights.

Next month, Gateway Constructors will begin rebuilding the Kingshighway bridge over Highway 40, requiring lane closures on one of the city's busiest roadways. The squeeze is expected to send more traffic to Vandeventer, Forest Park and Taylor avenues, and Wells Drive through Forest Park.

Lane restrictions on Interstate 170, south of Galleria Parkway, are likely to add traffic to Forest Park Parkway and Skinker Boulevard.

Westward expansion

Traffic patterns will change most in the western parts of the city, said Jeff Rainford, Mayor Francis Slay's chief of staff. So this year, that's where street officials are concentrating their efforts. Next year, when closings shift, the city will focus on improving its north-south corridors, Rainford said.

St. Louis is an east-west moving city. Urban growth spread to the east and west, with early streets taking those paths, and, later, a more complex highway system was built to accommodate that.

"We think the impact on downtown will be significantly less because all roads lead to downtown," Rainford said.

For now, crews are installing traffic-sensing devices on traffic signals at 32 intersections where heavier congestion is expected: on Kingshighway and McCausland, Vandeventer and Hampton avenues, to name a few.

Street officials will watch traffic on Taylor Avenue in the Central West End this summer to determine if seven stop signs need to come down.

"We've identified them as potential problems," Waelterman said.

They've also targeted nine stop signs to remove on Martin Luther King Drive and on Page Avenue.

Bridge coming down

Complicating matters will be the demolition of the Jefferson Avenue bridge just south of Highway 40 that spans the railroad tracks west of downtown. Crews hired by the city will be tearing down and rebuilding the 40-year-old bridge this summer because of its condition. Construction will take about 18 months.

Waiting isn't an option, said Marjorie Melton, president of the St. Louis Board of Public Service.

"It's about to fall down," she said of the bridge.

By the time the Jefferson Bridge reopens, the region will be bracing for a total shutdown of Highway 40 from I-170 to Kingshighway. (All lanes on Highway 40 from Spoede to I-170 close in 2008 and should reopen by 2009.)

By then, city officials said, they should have all improvements made to handle the disruption.

"In 2009, we should be ready to play ball," Waelterman said.

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