Are St. Louis officials laying the groundwork to take down the elevated section of Interstate 70 downtown?
It sure looks that way.
For the two years since a citizens group formed around the idea of replacing I-70 downtown with a street-level boulevard, City Hall has remained lukewarm to the idea.
After all, big plans are in the works to redo the Gateway Arch grounds and build a three-block lid over the highway, and tens of thousands of cars drive that road each day. And city officials have said the world-class architects and MODOT engineers working on all that are better equipped to deal with the issue than they are.
But now the city is poised to fund a study of how knocking down the elevated section of 70 might work. Last week, the St. Louis Development Corp. issued a request for proposals for a $90,000 "downtown multi-modal access study." It focuses on ways to improve connections between downtown and the riverfront, and includes this request:
People are also reading…
In particular, address the potential removal of the elevated sections of I-70 from north of Pine St. to O’Fallon St, to determine feasibility and traffic impacts should the elevated
sections be completely removed, brought to grade, and what various alternatives might be considered for this scenario to occur long-term.
Which is planning-speak for "figure out if we can tear down that highway." Which should cheer not only the City to River folks, but also the Congress for New Urbanism, which this year ranked I-70 downtown No. 6 on its list of "freeways without futures". City officials didn't return messages seeking comment.
Now, to be clear, an RFP for a study that looks at tearing down a highway is a long way from tearing down a highway. This is especially true when the highway isn't City Hall's to tear down - it belongs to MODOT, and they've shown even less enthusiasm for the idea.
But these things don't happen without lots of study, so this is a first step. And that's the only way to start getting anyplace.
