Money is now in place to overhaul Highway 40, from its too-short entrance ramps down to its crumbling foundation.

East-West Gateway Council of Governments on Wednesday approved spending $329 million in federal funds to rebuild the highway, also called Interstate 64, from Sarah Street in St. Louis to Spoede Road in west St. Louis County. Parts of the 10.9-mile stretch are about 65 years old and considered by engineers to be functionally obsolete.

"Definitely the design of it doesn't work anymore given the volume of the traffic and the speed of the traffic," said Linda Wilson, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Wilson said the department will be acquiring land for the project this fall -- about 200 landowners will be affected. At earliest, construction would begin in early 2007, she said. Work will take four to six years. Costs are expected to exceed $500 million. The department will issue bonds to cover the rest of the expense.

Regional planning officials credited the passage of Amendment 3 in Missouri last fall with getting funding for Highway 40. "We really didn't have money to do anything major in the region except what was already ongoing," said Jerry Blair, East-West Gateway's director of transportation planning.

The money for Highway 40 was included in a $1.1 billion transportation plan that will pay for more than 175 construction projects in the seven-county region through 2009. Others on the list to get federal funds include:

-- Continuing work on the Alton Bypass -- the extension of Illinois Route 255 north from Illinois Route 143 in Madison County.

-- Rebuilding the south half of the Interstate 44 interchange in Pacific. Work is expected to start by late 2008.

-- Improving the rest of Highway 21 from Lake Lorraine Road to Hillsboro. Work is to start next year.

-- Upgrading Highway 40/61 in St. Charles County to interstate standards, by removing traffic signals and widening the road from Highway K to Winghaven, and then from west of Lake Saint Louis to Interstate 70. Some construction is to start in the spring.

-- Building the second phase of the Page Avenue Extension in St. Charles County, from west of Jungs Station Road to west of Harvester Road. Utility work is to begin in mid-2007.

-- Building a new ramp from northbound Interstate 270 to westbound Highway 364, or the Page Avenue Extension. Work should start by late 2007.


Reporter Elisa Crouch
E-mail: ecrouch@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8119