By Jim Baer
We are 12 months into two full years of rebuilding Highway 64/40. This is a two-year project, which extends from Ballas Road in
the west to Kingshighway in the east,
a rebuild that will reshape St. Louis’ driving patterns and habits forever.
The initial five miles of construction
from Ballas to I-170 is complete and opens to vehicular traffic on Dec. 15th.
The sky did not fall, there were no catastrophic events and the budget has been met, while construction goals have all fallen neatly into place. The goal of the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) for providing a world-class transportation in the region is moving closer to the finish line.
In fact, some are almost overjoyed by their share of inconvenience. “We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade,” says John Wharton, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Facilities at the Saint Louis Science Center on Oakland Avenue near Kingshighway. “Oddly enough, we welcomed this project. You know that bridge that spans our building to the Planetarium in Forest Park will now become an observation deck for this construction project. School children can come and observe the earth movers and giant cranes in action,” he says.
Innovation can be the Mother of Invention, at least for Diane Kroner, employee relations’ manager for the Commerce Bank system. “We have a lady, our fellow employees call ‘scooter mom.’ She rides her scooter every morning from Kirkwood to Clayton, taking all the back roads.” So what does “Scooter Mom” do should it be raining or snowing? “Oh, she just folds up that little (scooter) and puts it in the back of someone’s trunk and gets a ride home,” explains Kroner.
Those who had businesses and attractions along the 12-mile stretch knew that careful planning would ease the pain and make the whole project palatable.
Take, for instance, the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. Though there are still nine entrances into the park, losing the Hampton Avenue Bridge for nearly a year at the foot of the southern egress could have been costly.
Not so says the History Museum’s Director Dr. Robert Archibald. “We have planned for a long time, the highway (64/40) closing. I can tell you there was impeccable planning and a remarkable effort to keep the public informed. Streets around our museum have been patched and repaired and the light signalization has been drastically improved,” says Dr. Archibald.
The Barnes-Jewish-Christian (BJC) midtown complex was at ground zero for both phases of construction. The hospital complex lived through the rebuild of the Kingshighway overpass and will be centrally affected by the second-phase of construction, stretching from I-170 to Kingshighway.
June Fowler, vice president for Corporate and Public Communications for the BJC Health System says planning went back to 2007. “Actually, we found a power point presentation that was first dated March 10, 2006. We had a task force of hospitals—BJC, St. John’s, St. Luke’s, Saint Louis University Hospital (Cardinal Glennon Hospital for Children) and Forest Park Hospital who all worked on this planning. We prepared for a long time with our staff and our patients.”
BJC issued discount Metro passes to its employees, while Washington University gave free passes to employees and students alike. BJC has encouraged van and car-pooling, ride sharing and using more public transportation. “I ride MetroLink to work every day and use it for my meetings in Clayton and downtown,” says Fowler. Fortunately, staffing here is 24/7 so the load is distributed over a longer workday than other businesses.
“Missouri Baptist Hospital is part of our group and they experienced first hand the construction that was at their doorstep. We learned a lot from them,” says Fowler. “I have really been impressed with the work done by the City of St. Louis. They improved our signalization and repaired the streets around our complex. This was the best of intra-governmental relations in action,” says Fowler.
The MoDOT Team
Makes This All Happen
Lesley Hoffarth and a team of professional engineers and builders, all working out of temporary construction headquarters in Vinita Park have offered the guidance and wisdom to shepherd this project toward a successful conclusion.
As it turned out, buying out housing, particularly in Richmond Heights turned out to be closer to 60 homes than 200. A budget of nearly $360 million will come in around $300 million. Gateway Constructors, the local team of combined forces of Millstone-Bangert and Fred Weber Co. along with a partnership involving Granite Construction Co. (Watsonville, Calif.) have executed the game plan flawlessly.
The western portion opens to the public one full month ahead of schedule, paving the way for the entire project to be finished on time or a bit ahead of schedule, the last quarter of 2009.
Hoffarth says all the pre-existing commitments have been kept. For instance, her team will be both on time and under budget; maximizing improvements with the money that was available. They have also minimized motorist impacts during construction, while building a long lasting product that will serve as a new model of what can be done (in future highway road and bridge building).
“We are extremely pleased with the progress, especially with the wet weather we experienced. Through mid-October, crews lost at least 44 days to rain. Gateway has done an amazing job of adjusting plans and pulling it (the project) together and we will finish earlier,” says Hoffarth.
“You know, absolutely no one said the project should not have been done,” says Hoffarth.
One of the noticeable differences upon completion will be a vastly improved drainage system the entire way. The original downtown portion, a series of looping roads and tunnels, then known as the Red Feather Expressway was woefully inadequate to handle water runoff. Then (the 1930s), cars were just transitioning from muddy roads to paved ones, autos then were built higher off the ground and people were just happy to be out of the mud and muck.
Copious attention has been paid to better drainage and runoff to cross structures. “We want to carefully control the flow rate to nearby creeks and streams. A lot of that issue has been in the McKnight (road) area. We have created a series of detention basins and we will have meter control on the flow rate into creeks to avoid future flooding,” Hoffarth indicates.
At the same time, modeling traffic and design features will deal with traffic bottlenecks, akin to those that amass daily in the Skinker Boulevard bridge area near Forest Park.
“The exit and entrance loops are gone, replaced with urban interchange diamond points. Similar ones exist at Manchester and 141 and Olive Street Road and I-270. We are creating access roads in the Hanley Road area and we know that Brentwood will work much better when this is done,” says Hoffarth.
The Public is Well Informed
Linda Wilson is community relations manager for MoDOT and a spokesperson for the project along with spokesperson for construction, Dan Galvin from Granite Construction.
MoDOT personnel created websites and made countless visits to businesses, schools, churches and other civic organizations to both protect the interests of nearby businesses and to get the word out to the public in advance of construction.
Wilson and her team gave 175 presentations alone in 2007. They worked closely with neighboring public and private schools along the route to accomodate more volume, while creating a higher level of efficiency. “We encouraged parents and students alike to arrive early, have breakfast and avoid peak traffic situations,” says Wilson. Visitation Academy on Ballas Road was one to implement that strategy.
Some businesses along the construction corridor have experienced a downturn in activity. Some of that could be blamed upon the project and some can be directly related to a sharp downturn in the regional and national economy. “We encouraged the many businesses to educate their patrons about construction updates and changes,” says Wilson.
One of the pluses of the project was the emergence of Mid-Metro 4, a consortium of the cities of Brentwood, Clayton, Maplewood and Richmond Heights who all linked together for the betterment of their communities.
Mid-Metro 4 featured unique promotions, based upon an incentive card and invited residents and visitors alike to rediscover the amenities along this central corridor including shops, restaurants and a variety of stores.
The Organization was recognized in late September by the Missouri Municipal League for their innovative efforts.
Dan Galvin, construction spokesman has been part of mega road building efforts for more than 20 years. He helped usher in major highway renovations in the Phoenix and Minneapolis areas of late. “This project has turned out better than expected. We have had great working relationships with our construction partners. MoDOT is a great outfit to work with,” claims Galvin.
“Public relations efforts turned out to be a key part of this project and I’ve never seen so much attention paid to this one aspect in any other city,” says Galvin. “This was not just a renovation, this was a remove and rebuild project in total. We worked out of the same offices and had a lot of over-the-shoulder supervision. To get a decision sometimes, all you had to do was walk down the hall,” says Galvin.
St. Louis, by December 2009, at the latest, will have a world-class highway stretching from Ballas Road to Kingshighway. Altogether, 31 bridges and overpasses will be completely rebuilt. The project will take travelers along a route safely and swiftly and everyone gains in the end. The construction slowdowns will be far outmatched by the worthiness of the project.
ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY
By Jim Baer
We’ve all seen those blue and white signs along roads and highways, recognizing volunteer companies and organizations that keep the right-of-way litter free.
There’s a new wrinkle in the industry, with a recent introduction to Missouri.
Adopt-A-Highway, Litter Removal Service of America Inc. has joined in partnership with the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) to also keep the roads clear and free of litter.
However, this organization is selling its space to companies and doing the work themselves. “We are looking for sponsors in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas to purchase a mile of highway to help improve the environment and show pride with their companies,” says Suzanne Cox, Missouri’s territorial manager.
To date, four companies have sponsored space along highways in Kansas City, while Emerson was the first to step to the plate in St. Louis.
Companies generally sign two-year contracts and pay $250 a month to maintain their stretch along a road or highway. In turn, Adopt-A-Highway provides signage and the cleaning crew that will move in and cleanse the area once or twice a month, while the sponsor gets the recognition.
“There are seven major highways in
St. Louis and we are trying to cover all of them,” says Cox. This particular company has been in business for 20 years with a Missouri launch just this past summer.
“First and foremost, we want all the highways litter free. This way, businesses can show their civic pride and help us keep the environment clean,” she says.
Interested companies are guided to the company website, www.adoptahighway.net.
In return for a modest investment, the company maintains the right-of-way; researches available sign sites; coordinates permit applications; provides a 48" x 60" panel sign and produces all proof of service documentation.
Adopt-A-Highway currently has operational programs in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and the state of Washington. |
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