St. Louis freeways

[agentsteel53]

That should be on the "best of" road signs - its button copy with state-named shields to boot - and Missouri normally don't do state-name shields on BGS

looks like the sign was heavily modified, so they took one of their surface-level standard shields and put it up there.  I'll bet at some point the sign said something about 40 and 66 making a turn.

is that a black sign, or just dark green in lighting from behind?

[kharvey10]

appears dark green, can't tell the actual color from the shadows.  MoDOT used to do a lot of black guide signs and dark green signs back in the 40s-60s

[Revive 755]

Virtual public meeting for I-270 from US 67 to MO 367 is up:
http://www.modot.gov/stlouis/I-270NorthCorridorVPMMay2012.htm

Highlights:

* The US 67 interchange changes from a cloverleaf to a SPUI (although it is currently planned to lose the WB-NB loop anyway).

* The option to keep the two way frontage roads mainly uses roundabouts for the ramp intersections, although there is at least one braided ramp in there.

* The MO 367 interchange changes from a cloverleaf to a SPUI.  Really brilliant design, with MO 367 being a full freeway north of this interchange.

[Stephane Dumas]

  A SPUI for MO-367, the weed they smoked isn't high quality to think like that.    A six-ramp parclo with a flyover from I-270 east to MO-367 is a better alternative.

However, the one-way frontage roads is a avenue to explore.

Edit: I tried to sketch a rendering of that reconfigurated interchange that should be. 

[kharvey10]

Route 367 does have a single stop light north of Lindbergh - with Route 94.  Due to that god damn single lane railroad overpass that route 94 has just west of 367, it is unlikely that light will change.  367 also has lights south of 270 as well.  There is also an hospital on the northwest corner of the 270/367 interchange and a high school on the northeast corner of that interchange.

However, that interchange does not have the congestion compared to Lindbergh.  The eastbound lanes back up west of Lindbergh every afternoon and that congestion goes past Hanley/Graham.  That backup used to be a lot worse prior to the rebuild of the 270/170 interchange but it still happens.  The exit with Lindbergh is due for upgrades whether or not they got the money for the rest of the corridor.

MoDOT would still be better off holding off most of the non-essential construction, it just going to be a matter of time before IDiOT realizes that they made a big mistake of doing the canal bridge project long before of fixing the rest of that corridor they're on the hook for.  (IDiOT has an history of screwing over the "River Bend" area of Alton/Wood River/Godfrey, etc, and the locals are already furious over the way the 255 project is going.  When those wrecks start piling up on 270 between the canal and Route 203 starting next fall, the locals  will really get livid.)

[NE2]

IDiOT

:takeadrink:

[adt1982]

I wonder what is being changed here.

http://www.bnd.com/2012/09/19/2330183/idot-to-close-lanes-on-interstate.html

[kharvey10]

I wonder what is being changed here.

http://www.bnd.com/2012/09/19/2330183/idot-to-close-lanes-on-interstate.html

The next trip through downtown STL I do on 64 I vow to have a camera ready.

[kharvey10]

well found no new signage installed.  However, I found not one but two neutered I-64 signs west of 270 on the Missouri side of the river that are NOT on BGS, however, both days it was raining and couldn't get any shots off.  Both such signs were westbound.  In downtown St. Louis, though, the new signage on 55 near the bridge has green outs as they got the I-44 shields covered on some of them but the locals are not fooled, in fact the concurrency is signed southbound anyway.  Vast majority of them see that section of 55 between the PSB and the 44 split as if its 44/55 anyway and that was from day one.  Locals call it what they want to call it, and MoDOT needs to be aware of that.

[Scott5114]

Locals call it what they want to call it

"highway farty"

[NYYPhil777]

Locals call it what they want to call it

"highway farty"

You mean "I-SixteeFar" 
Speaking of St. Louis freeways, the Phase II of MO-364 is essentially complete, but there's no mile markers on the Phase II portion. There's hardly any on the Phase I portion in St. Charles County, but that job is perfectly done in St. Louis County.

[Revive 755]

The construction schedule for Phase 3 of the Page Avenue extension has been announced:

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/361402/3/Route-364-Page-project-update-

Seems odd that the last sections will open from west to east, opposite of all work so far.

[Revive 755]

Public meeting exhibits are up for Phase 3 of the Page Avenue extension (MO 94 to US 40-61)

http://www.modot.gov/stlouis/major_projects/documents/Displays_InOneFile.pdf

Broken out into smaller files here:
http://www.modot.gov/stlouis/major_projects/Route364March2013Meeting.htm

My comments:

* The interchange with US 40-61 has been downgraded to a full cloverleaf with a deformed EB-EB loop ramp.  The original plan had a turbine ramp for this movement (the stub for which is visible in the NW quadrant in today's interchange).  I know MoDOT's under funding pressure, but this design is just guaranteeing that the interchange will have to be modified in the future.  In addition, there is a lousy one-lane section for the WB mainline between the ramp to WB US 40 and the loop from WB US 40.

* The WB off-EB on half diamond with Henke Road is new.  Given that there will be alternate access to MO 364 (albeit in an indirect manor) and funding issues, this interchange should have been omitted or added in the future.

* The Bryan Road interchange has changed from a SPUI to a diamond with a loop for the WB MO 364 to SB Bryan Road movement.

* The interchange with Rte K has changed from a partial cloverleaf with entrance loop from Rte K to a SPUI.  I've heard that Rte K could use widening to six lanes, but it appears the bridge will not allow for that.

* The interchange with MO 94 has been downgraded so now the EB MO 364 to Mid Rivers Mall Drive and the south outer road will be done with a new stoplight on MO 94

[ShawnP]

Good on MODOT and cities to come up with this. Every last stinkin time I have driven on I-70 as rush hour I am backed up. Anyone have a ideal if MO-364 will get a Interstate designation in the future.

[NE2]

Anyone have a ideal if MO-364 will get a Interstate designation in the future.

I'll have an ideal, if you know what I mean.

[Revive 755]

Some projects of note from the 2014-2017 Transportation Improvement Program for the St. Louis area (http://www.ewgateway.org/pdffiles/Library/trans/tip/FY2014-2017/TIp-FY2014-2017-Final.pdf

* Page B-93 (indicated as 183 in Chrome) has funding for a first tier environmental study along I-70 from US 61 in Wentzville to the east end of the reversible lanes in 2014.  Giving the listing of the project purpose as "sustainability," I'm guessing the study will be looking at HOV lanes.

* Page B-109 (201) has the I-255 interchange with Davis Ferry Road funded in 2015.

* Page B-110 (202)  has the I-64 interchange with Rider Road (shown here in Google Maps: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Mascoutah,+IL&hl=en&ll=38.564576,-89.848037&spn=0.014211,0.033023&sll=42.032432,-88.091192&sspn=0.215992,0.528374&oq=masc&hnear=Mascoutah,+St+Clair,+Illinois&t=m&z=16) funded in 2014.

* Page B-112 (204) has a feasibility study for connecting IL 15 to the Tudor/Pigott ramps of the PSB Complex.

[Stephane Dumas]

* Page B-110 (202)  has the I-64 interchange with Rider Road (shown here in Google Maps: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Mascoutah,+IL&hl=en&ll=38.564576,-89.848037&spn=0.014211,0.033023&sll=42.032432,-88.091192&sspn=0.215992,0.528374&oq=masc&hnear=Mascoutah,+St+Clair,+Illinois&t=m&z=16) funded in 2014.

Wasn't close to the approximate location where the planned US-50 expressway was supposed to link with I-64?

[Revive 755]

* Page B-110 (202)  has the I-64 interchange with Rider Road (shown here in Google Maps: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Mascoutah,+IL&hl=en&ll=38.564576,-89.848037&spn=0.014211,0.033023&sll=42.032432,-88.091192&sspn=0.215992,0.528374&oq=masc&hnear=Mascoutah,+St+Clair,+Illinois&t=m&z=16) funded in 2014.

Wasn't close to the approximate location where the planned US-50 expressway was supposed to link with I-64?

The US 50 freeway would have used the existing cloverleaf with IL 158 and US 50.  There's a slight jog in the east frontage road for US 50 where the freeway would have broken off:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Mascoutah,+IL&hl=en&ll=38.579505,-89.872866&spn=0.002512,0.004128&sll=38.580715,-89.891081&sspn=0.056831,0.164795&oq=mas&hnear=Mascoutah,+St+Clair,+Illinois&t=h&z=19

Google earth shows the frontage road had a much sharper curve and terminated at US 50 before being the road was extended northward around 1998.

EDIT:  Any revival of a freeway or expressway facility for the US 50 corridor though will now likely be somewhere near the I-64 interchange with IL 4, based on talk I've heard and Page 13/16 of IDOT's 2008 Annual Report:
http://www.dot.state.il.us/annualreport/2008/insideoutside.pdf

[Revive 755]

As of this weekend MoDOT has replaced two of the fairly new signs for WB I-44 and the Truman Parkway on NB I-55.  The new signs have the leftmost lane for WB I-44 and the center-left lane for Truman Parkway.

[Revive 755]

The new ramp from WB I-70 to the Eads Bridge and Washington Avenue is open, though it is very poorly marked with no advanced signing and one orange sign maybe 500 feet before the ramp.

[Revive 755]

It appears MoDOT wants to convert the partial cloverleaf between I-70 and Fifth Street in St. Charles to a DDI.  Source (top entry on Page 21/45)

[m2tbone]

The first section of MO Hwy 364 Phase 3 opened this evening around 8:00pm between Hwy K in O'Fallon and I-64 in Lake St. Louis.  I just happened to be in the area when the cones/barriers were being removed to open the new stretch of highway, so I was one of the first to drive on it.   
The final section of MO Hwy 364 (Hwy K to MO Hwy 94/Mid Rivers Mall Dr.) should open by the end of the month, completing the freeway from I-64 in St. Charles County to I-270 in St. Louis County. 

[DJStephens]

Noticed quite a bit of hatred, in this thread, for former MO Dot transportation chief Pete Rahn.  Rahn did come from New Mexico, where he was chief under gadfly governor Gary Johnson (Jan 95 - Jan 03). Rahn in New Mexico was responsible for greenlighting quite a bit of roadway work, much of which was sorely inadequate, of poor design and lousy construction quality.  Lowlights included such "projects" as the Alamogordo "relief" route, US -70 four lane, NM 44 / US 550 four laning, and US 54 four laning as well as the US 70 "work" on the eastern side of las Cruces.   Rahn, incidentally, is back in New Mexico, as District III chief in the Albuquerque Office of NMDot.   

[skluth]

They apparently opened the last leg of MO 364 late yesterday. I went through about 3PM and it was still closed to the public. It will be a bit dodgy for a while as only one lane will be open on the new stretch and not all the ramps are open. I'm curious to see how much it will relieve traffic on I-64 near 94.

More info at http://www.modot.org/stlouis/major_projects/Route364upgrade.htm

[Bobby5280]

I was just in St. Louis from the middle of last week into the weekend.

Didn't have a chance to drive over the new I-70 bridge over the Mississippi River, but think it's slightly odd for what is now I-44 not having ramps onto the new bridge. However, traffic from I-44 wanting to cross the Mississippi would more likely do so from the older crossing.

A new "cap" over I-44 in front of the Gateway Arch is far along in progress. I can't tell for certain, but it looks like that block-wide cap will remove Memorial Drive between Chestnut Street and Market Street, creating a pedestrian-only zone between the Old Courthouse and the National Park. Underneath the cap MO DOT is doing a bunch of work in the median of I-44. I can't tell for sure if they're trying to convert it to 3 lanes in each direction, up from the previous 2, or just doing road improvement work. If they do make it 3 lanes in each direction the road won't have any shoulders (which would seem to violate Interstate highway standards). Our civic club group new better than attempt to drive a car near the arch. We walked from the Union Station Hotel to the Gateway Arch park instead.