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In a region
criss-crossed by two rivers, folks need bridges—to connect communities,
to connect with employment, to connect with each other.
According to data from Deanna Venker, Missouri Department of Transportation
(MoDOT) area engineer for the City of St. Louis, they need those
bridges about 600,000 times on an average weekday.
That means you’ll have choke points; it’s the nature of the beast,
or at least the geography, says East– West Gateway Coordinating
Council Executive Director Les Sterman.
But help is here with the first phase of the Page Avenue Extension/Highway
364 Bridge, and help is on the drawing board with the new Mississippi
River Bridge.
Phase I of the Page project opened on December 13th. It runs from
Bennington Place at Interstate 270 to a couple miles beyond its
tie-in with Highway 94 in St. Charles County. Project manager Barry
Bergman of MoDOT estimates the 10 lanes will carry 50,000 to 60,000
cars a day. Eighty-five or 90 percent of that will be relief of
the overcapacity of the Blanchette/Interstate 70 Bridge, whose own
10 lanes currently bear more than 200,000 crossings on an average
workday.
Unfortunately for Illinois–Missouri commuters, even though spanning
the Mississippi is the East-West Gateway’s top priority for regional
transportation projects, “on the drawing board” means a waiting
game.
Funding, construction and a completion date are difficult to predict,
according to Sterman.
“The Mississippi River Bridge is our top priority,” he said. Everybody
is working night and day to make this happen, but it is not a slam
dunk.”
Brooks Brestal, studies and plans engineer with the Illinois Department
of Transportation (IDOT), agrees, adding a cautiously optimistic
note: “We’ve seen language in both the House and Senate drafts of
the new transportation bill that includes funding for the bridge.
That’s good news.”
Venker agrees with East-West Gateway’s prioritization of the bridge
in its STIP, or Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan. “We think
it’s a good call,” she said, “because of safety; congestion, particularly
at the Poplar Street Bridge; and general capacity, getting commuters
and freight across the Mississippi.”
Brestal explained that Illinois and Missouri are sharing the $1.6
billion bridge building investment 50-50, but that IDOT is the project’s
“lead agency—in charge of developing the environmental impact statements,
design plans, regulatory compliance…someone has to be the lead to
obtain regulatory approval.”
Lead aside, Brestal extols the virtues of the two departments’ cooperation.
“This is one of the first times IDOT and MoDOT have worked together
on a project of this magnitude. We cooperated on the Clark Bridge
and the Jefferson Barracks bridge, but this is more than a bridge.
It is an extensive improvement in region’s overall transportation
capabilities.
Bruce Holland, president of Holland Construction Services, chairs
the RCGA’s New Mississippi River Bridge Committee.
“The business community supports the new bridge, because it is such
an important driver of economic development for the entire region,”
he said. “For the St. Louis region to prosper, to grow as a whole,
we have to have good linkages among all the communities in both
states: not just between St. Louis City and Illinois, but St. Clair
County with St. Charles County and Madison County with Jefferson
County.”
Holland puts the need in context: “The Poplar Street Bridge is one
of two locations in the United States where three interstate highways
cross a river on one bridge.”
Venker points out an even more startling indicator: “In 1967, 22
lanes crossed the Mississippi River at downtown; today that number
is 16, with the McKinley and MacArthur Bridges no longer in service.”
Bryan Bezold, RCGA’s chief economist, projects that construction
of the bridge and spin-offs would mean 24,300 one-year job-equivalents
over 11 years. What’s more, the $1.6 billion in construction expenditure
would spin off an additional $1 billion of economic activity.
Brestal granted that the bridge will facilitate the morning commute
from and evening commute to Illinois, but the linchpin is that “commerce
in the whole region” will get a boost.
“The other thing the bridge project has going is the relocation
of Illinois Route 3, from Sauget to Venice,” Brestal said. “That
will allow for a far freer movement of north-south traffic through
Metro-east and open up hundreds of acres of undeveloped property.
That could be a real boon to those Metro-east communities.”
Meanwhile, Sterman applauds the variety of efforts to reduce one-car-one-commuter
travel. “Public transit carries a small portion of the overall traffic
in the region. But MetroLink is one of the best new-start light
rail systems in the country. We need to learn how to use it better,
to attract more people to it, to build around it and create efficiencies
to ease highway traffic.”
Nonetheless, Sterman points out that roads and bridges continue
to demand attention. “The legitimate need grows.”
Gary Turner, St. Charles County’s director of transportation, believes
he has a shining—if unfunded—example of those legitimate needs that
Sterman mentioned: “Extending the Page project’s Phase I upgrades
a couple miles down 94 helps somewhat to disperse the bottleneck.
But the concept is to reduce congestion all along the route from
Bennington and 270 to what will be I-64/40 and Highway N. Until
Phases II and III are completed, the full potential for reducing
congestion or improving safety along Highways 40, 70 and 94 won’t
be reached in St. Charles County.”
According to Jim Gremaud, MoDOT’s area engineer for St. Charles
County, the Page project’s two remaining phases would require $280
million to complete. Sterman adds that Page at I-270 could become
a choke point as well, and needs to be monitored.
Gremaud’s agency is wrapping up a study—needing only the environmental
impact statement, which will be completed early next year—for a
new Interstate 64/Highway 40 structure to cross the Missouri River
between Chesterfield and St. Charles County.
“The preferred option calls for a $168 million project, measured
in 2007 dollars,” he said, “including right-of-way and construction.
“We’re running three lanes of what is essentially Interstate traffic
on an 80-year-old bridge that was originally built for two lanes,”
Gremaud continued. “It’s narrow and has no shoulder. That causes
safety issues and concerns, so we have lowered speeds, and of course
that lowers capacity.”
Although the region must muster the resources, or resolve, to replace
80 year old bridges, or to complete safety upgrades like Highway
21 in Jefferson County and other growing outlying areas, St. Louis
still enjoys an average commute time in the low-20 minute range.
“St. Louis has an extensive and effective metropolitan highway system,”
Sterman said.
That’s something to build on.
CONNECTING
COUNTIES
Celebrations greeted Page Avenue Extension opening
Dec. 13
Thirty-four years ago, the Page Avenue Extension was
a twinkle in the eyes of regional transportation planners.
As of Saturday, December 13, this critical thoroughfare
connecting St. Louis and St. Charles Counties became
a reality for area businesses, commuters and visitors.
“The Page Avenue Extension has been wished for, longed
for, planned for since 1969,” says Linda Wilson, public
information manager at the Missouri Department of Transportation’s
St. Louis District. “Back then it was already an accepted
fact that in the future we’d need to extend a major
road in St. Louis County to St. Charles County to relieve
traffic on Interstate 70. After looking at different
options, planners at MoDOT decided Page Avenue would
be the best route.”
Wilson points out I-70 at the Missouri River’s (Blanchette)
Bridge has the heaviest traffic anywhere in Missouri,
with an average daily volume of 200,000 cars.
“Combine that with the fact that I-70 is the heaviest
used interstate in Missouri, and it’s obvious that relieving
I-70 traffic over the Page Avenue Extension will provide
important regional and statewide economic benefits,”
Wilson says.
Getting the 8-mile, $325 million project (20 percent
state-funded, 80 percent federal) off the drawing boards
has been a challenge; actual road construction didn’t
begin until 1997. Prior to that, numerous studies, public
hearings, planning sessions and meetings were held.
Environmental issues were behind most of the delays,
Wilson notes.
“MoDOT has provided an incredible mitigation package,”
she says, “spending about $40 million to dredge Creve
Coeur Lake and another lake, add 1000 acres to Creve
Coeur Park, install new signage and build soccer fields
and a bike trail.” With the completion of the Page Avenue
Extension, the popular bike trail, which encircles Creve
Coeur Lake, will tie into the Katy Trail in St. Charles.
Motorists can access the Page Avenue Extension in St.
Charles County from Upper Bottom Road/Arena Parkway
and Route 94, and in St. Louis County from I-270 and
the Maryland Heights Expressway. The roadway has been
officially designated as Route 364 and the Missouri
River bridge will be named the Veterans Memorial Bridge,
according to a law passed by the Missouri Legislature.
MoDOT expects 60,000 cars a day to use the Page Avenue
Extension.
Several thousand regional residents welcomed the Page
Avenue Extension at its grand opening celebration December
13.
“We purposely planned the event on a Saturday because
we wanted an opportunity for the public to come out
and touch it, feel it, experience the extension opening
before we put cars on it,” Wilson noted.
Opening day activities included a four-mile fun run
and a cycling time trial, plus “Play on Page” for visitors
to walk, run, bicycle, skate and rollerblade on the
pristine surface. Opening ceremonies included marching
bands, color guard, dignitaries’ speeches, and a ribbon-
cutting. The public participated in the first-ever drive
over the bridge following the ceremonies. |
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