Interstate 44 East - Downtown St. Louis

Interstate 44 merges onto the left side of I-55 north beyond the Tucker Boulevard underpass.

05/07/18

Interstate 44 joins I-55 north with two lanes to expand the northbound freeway to five lanes to Exit 290 C with Park Avenue at 7th Street. All succeeding exits were renumbered to use the mileage of I-44 instead of I-55 by 2014.

05/24/18

Exit 290 C branches away from I-44/55 north for Park Avenue. Park Avenue links the LaSalle Park neighborhood with the Kosciusko industrial area at Broadway. 7th Street stems north from Broadway to Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals MLB franchise.

05/24/18

I-44/55 elevate onto a viaduct from Park Avenue north to their split at the west end of the Poplar Street Bridge (PSB).
Interstate 55 previously overlapped with I-70 across the PSB, but that changed in February 2014 when I-70 shifted northward onto the new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge.

05/24/18

The MacArthur Bridge across the Mississippi River comes into view east of the viaduct on I-44/55. The double decked steel truss bridge opened in 1917 to automobile bridge and by 1928 with railroad traffic. The aging structure was converted to railroad only use in 1981.¹

05/24/18

A substandard ramp relegated the Interstate 55 northbound mainline to a single lane at the Poplar Street Bridge. Construction underway through 2017 replaced three of the four directional ramps between Interstate 64, the PSB and I-44 leading north with two lane ramps.

05/24/18

Interstate 55 departs beyond the MacArthur Bridge for the eight lane wide PSB (formerly I-70) alongside I-64/U.S. 40 east.
There is no access to I-64/U.S. 40 west.

05/24/18

The Downtown St. Louis skyline spreads to the northwest opposite The Gateway Arch.

05/24/18

Formerly Exit 209 B and the I-70 mainline, I-44 extends north through a trenched freeway between Downtown and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. I-55/64 combine for 2.8 miles east to I-70, where I-64 splits for Fairview Heights and O'Fallon while I-55 overlaps with I-70 northeast to Collinsville and Troy.

05/24/18

Interstate 44 east lowers to pass under two railroad lines and the I-64/U.S. 40 viaduct southeast of Busch Stadium. A 13 foot 8 inch clearance precludes most trucks from using I-44 here.

05/03/12

Exit 291B quickly follows onto Memorial Drive northbound at Poplar Street to the Gateway Arch and Walnut Street west to Downtown.
I-64/U.S. 40 emerge from a double decker freeway south of Busch Stadium to pass well above Interstate 44 west.

05/07/18

The Gateway Arch rises just from Jefferson National Expansion Memorial between Interstate 44 and the adjacent Mississippi River.

05/07/18

The ensuing exit along I-44 east connects with Washington Avenue west and Lumiere Place Boulevard north to the Lumiere Place Casino. The off-ramp was built during the CityArchProject, replacing what was an on-ramp from Memorial Drive northbound.

05/07/18

Flyovers from the PSB west to Interstate 44 were rebuilt during the Poplar Street Ramp project. A new two lane ramp links the bridge with I-44 leading north and adjacent Memorial Drive to Walnut Street west.

05/07/18

The on-ramp from the PSB westbound adds an auxiliary lane to Exit 292. The succeeding stretch was reconstructed as part of the CityArch2015 Project, which removed part of Memorial Drive along the east side of I-44.

05/07/18

Exit 292 rises to intersect Washington Avenue at the west end of the Eads Bridge on the north side of Jefferson Expansion National Memorial.

05/07/18

CityArch2015 work underway in October 2015 constructed a lid above Interstate 44 between Market and Chestnut Streets, joining the park grounds of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial with Luther Ely Smith Square. Overpasses for both streets were removed, and as was the one block section of Memorial Drive southbound linking the two.

05/07/18

Exit 292 departs Interstate 44 eastbound for Lumiere Place Boulevard at the north end of Jefferson Expansion National Memorial. Lumiere Place Boulevard replaced Memorial Boulevard north from Washington Avenue to Biddle Street, where 3rd Street takes over.

05/07/18

Exit 292 partitions with a U-turn ramp to Memorial Drive south back to Pine Street, Lumiere Place Boulevard north to Laclede's Landing, Washington Avenue west toward the Dome at America's Center, and the Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River to East St. Louis, Illinois.

05/07/18

Interstate 44 east emerges from the below-grade freeway to elevate onto a viaduct from Washington Avenue north to Broadway. Exit 293 for Old North St. Louis and Near North Riverfront departs a mile ahead at the east end of I-44.

05/08/17

Interstate 44 east prepares to drops below grade again ahead of North Broadway. The freeway expands by two lanes with the Express Lanes traveling between the west and eastbound lanes. The formerly reversible lanes flow inbound only to Broadway.

05/07/18

One half mile south of the 10th Street off-ramp (Exit 293) to Madison Street on Interstate 44 east. Subsequent exits are from Interstate 70 west.

05/07/18

Milepost 293 is the last for Interstate 44 for the 642 mile route that originated in Wichita Falls, Texas.

05/07/18

Interstate 44 east ends as travelers finally reach the Madison Street exit. Madison Street connects I-44 with industrial areas of Near North Riverfront to the east and west to Old North St. Louis and St. Louis Place.

05/07/18