I-64 double decker freeway in St Louis: why?

[bugo]

The western double decker portion of I-64 is very short.  It seems to be decked this way just to avoid a few buildings.  Why were these buildings considered important enough to build such an expensive highway?

[Bobby5280]

I-64 has to straddle between Busch Memorial Stadium and some buildings on the North Side. The Metrolink rail line is hugging on the South side of the I-64 ROW. There's also what looks like an old building across I-64 from the baseball stadium. It could be historical in nature and off limits from being demolished to make way for a wider I-64.

[bugo]

I'm talking about the section west of the baseball stadium.

[Revive 755]

If I remember right from the EIS (which can be found in Northwestern University's collection), it would have been preferable to have done a more traditional ground level expansion to six lanes.  The stacked option was chosen though for some reason I can't remember - business/industrial impacts perhaps?

EDIT: Quote from the St. Louis freeways thread back when I had found the EIS:

Found the EIS in the Northwestern Transportation Library for what is now the western double deck section of US 40 in St. Louis.  Turns out the as built design was a compromise - the MHTD originally wanted to go with both directions at grade (Alternative 1) over a double deck configuration (Alternative 3 - sounded like this alternative was going to have a longer double deck section than the Alt 1 - Alt 3 combo compromise.  Interestingly the EIS was for 'Traffic Relief 40'

[m2tbone]

I'm pretty sure this section was stacked to fit between buildings so buildings such as the Armory wouldn't have to be demolished.  Another interesting thing about this stretch is that Grand Blvd. goes above eastbound I-64 and under westbound I-64.  It would seem that the original road went under Grand, and since there was no room to spread out to widen it, eastbound was routed on the old route, and a new westbound structure was built above it. 

[Bobby5280]

The buildings on the North side of the stacked I-64 are pretty substantial. The Sheraton Hotel building is 13 stories tall. The building just east of it is 10 stories tall, but with a spire rising up another 10 or so floors. There's some other old buildings and a big parking garage next to the highway.

The only area where I-64 could have been spread out to any practical extent is over the Metrolink light rail line next to the highway's South side. But I don't know how practical that would have been considering the overhead electrical lines for the railway. It might have opened up some kind of political can of worms too.

[Chris]

An aerial photo of the segment in question.


D5647_CM_R2-76 by MoDOT Photos, on Flickr

[NE2]

The western double decker portion of I-64 is very short.  It seems to be decked this way just to avoid a few buildings.  Why were these buildings considered important enough to build such an expensive highway?

Mods please delete all posts referring to the eastern double decker.

[Bobby5280]

It would have been helpful to be a little more specific about the section of I-64 being described, in this case the segment between S Vandeventer Ave and S Compton Ave. Just using the term "western" is a little vague.

At any rate, some of the same problems appear to be present: substantial buildings in the path of what could have been a wider freeway. Just past the Forest Park Ave. split with I-64 (at S. Compton Ave.) a couple fairly tall buildings and a 3 story tall plaza connected to them block widening I-64 to the north of the ROW. The St. Louis Armory building and two large Goodwill outlet store buildings would block an expansion on the South side of the ROW.

Granted, there are several buildings in that area fit for the wrecking ball. But the key buildings I mentioned probably would have been too costly in terms of money and/or politics to demolish to make way for a wider I-64.

[Stephane Dumas]

I wonder does the double-decker gap of I-64 is seismic retrofit in case of earthquake due to the proximity of the New Madrid fault?

[J N Winkler]

I wonder does the double-decker gap of I-64 is seismic retrofit in case of earthquake due to the proximity of the New Madrid fault?

I don't know about that segment specifically, but MoDOT did a large amount of seismic retrofit work in the St. Louis area (including a double-decker on, I think, I-44) about five years ago and hasn't done any since.

[Brandon]

I wonder does the double-decker gap of I-64 is seismic retrofit in case of earthquake due to the proximity of the New Madrid fault?

I don't know about that segment specifically, but MoDOT did a large amount of seismic retrofit work in the St. Louis area (including a double-decker on, I think, I-44) about five years ago and hasn't done any since.

It would have to be I-64.  I-44 has no double-decker segments.  I know that MoDOT closed I-64 a couple of years ago for a full rebuild, and that may have included some seismic work on those sections.

[bugo]

It doesn't matter.  If a strong earthquake is centered towards the north end of the New Madrid Fault, St Louis is toast, and these structures will cease to exist.

[Brandon]

It doesn't matter.  If a strong earthquake is centered towards the north end of the New Madrid Fault, St Louis is toast, and these structures will cease to exist.

Not so sure about that.  IIRC, part of the Cypress Viaduct was retrofitted in Oakland, California for the 1989 earthquake.  The part that was not is the part that collapsed.  In addition, the soils below the structure and the city would play a major role in what would survive and what would not.  The alluviums on the east (Illinois) side of the river might liquify, but I thought the Missouri side of the river had more bedrock near the surface.  I do know that the bluffs on the Illinois side have bedrock closer to the surface than the bottomlands.

[J N Winkler]

It also depends on the design goal underlying the retrofit.  One reason the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was replaced altogether, instead of being retrofitted (for which the estimated cost was $250 million at a time when full replacement was just over $1 billion), is that the retrofit would not have allowed the bridge as a whole to tolerate what Caltrans called a "maximum credible earthquake" and thus to serve as a lifeline route.  I don't know if MoDOT adopted lifeline functionality as a design criterion; the construction plans for the retrofit don't say.

[UNDSIOUX]

The common sense reason would be the buildings and the lack of room in the area, but the conspiracy theorist in me says it's a scheme by Anheuser-Busch and MODOT to force westbound traffic to directly face that kick-ass Budweiser sign on top of the building as you curve into the double-decker area over Grand .  Advertising at its best- there's nothin' subliminal about that and it looks really cool at night (also takes your eyes off the crummy industrial area around it).

Yet another reason that I-64 is one of my favorite urban freeways in the whole country. 

BTW, bugo... don't feel bad.  I knew what you were talking about right away- it wasn't that confusing to those who are familiar with STL and the old "forty".

[skluth]

The Goodwill on the south side of the highway was the main warehouse for Famous-Barr. When Macy's bought out the chains out ten years ago, they no longer needed the warehouse but by then the highway had been there for over 30 years. The other buildings along the north side were also part of a bustling industrial corridor. 40/64 was an extension each way from an old expressway that ran west along the south side of Forest Park. (Something like the Red Line Highway, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now.) I believe the east end of the expressway was at Vandeventer or Grand and the west end was in Ladue. While it looks crazy today, it probably made sense at the time. Otherwise, the 55/70 bridge over the Mississippi (locally referred to as the Poplar Street Bridge or PSB) would likely have just split its traffic to the north and south, and not gone west as a freeway at all.

The PSB did not exist when I was a kid visiting STL in 1967. 55/70 dumped out to the local bridges - Eads, Veterans (now the MLK), and whatever the bridge that is now just a railroad bridge at the east end of Chouteau was called - which were all tolled. US 40 was a freeway going east that ended around Vandeventer.

[Revive 755]

It would have to be I-64.  I-44 has no double-decker segments.  I know that MoDOT closed I-64 a couple of years ago for a full rebuild, and that may have included some seismic work on those sections.

The closed section was west of both of the double deck sections.  The eastern double deck segment was retrofitted a few years ago as part of a separate project; I don't believe the western section was.