Allen Dotson: Hello,
After the construction is over and the dust settles, can we call the highway either Hwy 40 or Hwy 64. I know many people who are confused when you say Hwy 64.

Is there going to be one name for the new hwy.

Thanks, Allen

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: When complete the highway will have the same signs it has had on it since 1988. It is Interstate 64/US Route 40. We focus on the interstate designation because that is the highest designation. We know many people just call it Highway 40. It is and will be both.

Linda Wilson

Bill: I was looking at the webcam at 170 and 64. There is one pier next to the finished portion of the east to north flyover ramp that looks awfully close to the others. Is that just the camera angle or is it really that close? By the way,thanks for putting those three cameras in place.It is interesting to watch the progress.

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: The pier for the eastbound I-64 to northbound I-170 ramp is close to the lanes of I-64. The I-170 interchange is a complicated design with many piers, ramps and lanes close to others. It is all safely designed.

We are glad you enjoy the cameras. We are working on getting more for the project and also moving them around. For example, next year we will have a camera at Hanley to watch the progress when that interchange is transformed.

Linda Wilson

Graeme: Thanks for taking the time to do this every week!

Was there a study done to see what roads needed to be improved to handle the traffic that roads such as Manchester, Page, and Olive in particular take on? Olive seems extremely bad until 141 then it lightens up. Has anything been studied about this and if the Highway 40 shutdown affected it?

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: We are glad to have the opportunity to do this every week. Thanks to the Post-Dispatch for providing this forum for your questions and our answers.

MoDOT studied for years what the impacts would be. MoDOT and Gateway Constructors also modeled the traffic impacts once we knew the exact construction schedule. It was predicted that all the parallel roads to I-64 would take the extra traffic. The closer to I-64, the more traffic would divert to it. We have seen increases on Manchester, Olive and Page. Olive traffic volumes have increased 70% east of I-270. West of I-270 it is only a 5 % increase. MoDOT continues to study and report every two weeks on the traffic volumes and travel times on the alternate routes. We have these reports on the MoDOT website at www.modot.mo.gov click on St. Louis and then click on I-64 traffic information. The latest report was posted today.

Linda Wilson

mike: would it be possible for a local news group to feature latest video or pictures of progress being made ,maybe from aerial photos,just curious at the progress being made ,I travel to east corridor daily and from what I can see it is coming along nicely

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: We have been working with the local news media to provide updates. Just last week, the Post-Dispatch, Channel 5 and Channel 2 all took tours of the project and did reports on the progress. We are providing every opportunity possible to let them in the work zone for updates.

We also have a camera at Clayton/Warson that you can see views of the project every 15 minutes and a photo gallery on the I-64 website at www.thenewi64.org, click on the Photo icon on the homepage.

Linda Wilson

Sam: I believe I have found a design flaw on the rebuild of the Boland ave. overpass. Eastbound drivers on the exit ramp to Boland cannot see southbound Boland traffic to decide whether it is safe to turn out into Boland because the angle is at an incline and the new barrier on the west side of the bridge is built so high. Can you check it out?

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: I'm assuming you are referring to the Bellevue bridge exit, as we do not have ramps at Boland. We are aware of the sight issue at Bellevue. Gateway Constructors is moving the sidewalk crossing and the stop sign location this week. It should improve the situation. The barrier cannot be removed because it is the crash barrier to keep vehicles from going off the bridge. The restriping and moving of the stop bar should take care of the problem.

Linda Wilson

jeff: has there been any consideration to increasing the green light time on eager going east to hwy 40 or turning left onto hanley. I take that road quite often, and it seems there is an avg of 5 vehicles getting through that light. With sometimes a stack of 20+ vehicles waiting for that light, it takes an extra long time to finally get through..... thanks

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: MoDOT and St. Louis County Highway Department have been actively monitoring and adjusting the signal at Eager and Hanley. There have been changes made to the signal and the striping of the lanes. Unfortunately, the traffic demand on Eager and Hanley is so great, that we cannot do any more with the timing. All the directions have issues and delays.

Linda Wilson

Mike: When do they plan on turning on the stop light at Conway and Spoede?

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: St. Louis County Highway Department is completing the work at the intersection including the signal and sidewalks. The signal should be turned on by early May.

Linda Wilson

Bob: Is there any way to persuade Gateway Constructors to "mess up" and construct one of the new overpasses with too low a clearance so the big tractor-trailers will not be able to use the new road? One, they are dangerous. Two, they'll tear up the new road. (I'm only half-kidding with this question.)

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: You know even when we have the high enough, the trucks still tend to hit them, referencing the truck that hit a bridge in Chesterfield Valley a few weeks ago.

We understand your point about trucks. If it helps you feel better, we studied the truck traffic as part of our environmental studies to build this project. I-70 has the highest truck volume with 40%. I-44 and I-55 are close behind. I-64 had less than 10% trucks before the construction project. Our projection is the truck volume on the new I-64 will only grow to about 10% with many of those being local truck deliveries. I-64 does not have the truck destinations that the other interstates have in St. Louis.

Linda Wilson

Lisa Schultz: Could you please name the top five reasons why the Highland Terrace and Boland bridges are not complete?

Thank you for the opportunity to ask questions.

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: If you think back to the weekend when we knocked down Bellevue, Boland and Highland Terrace you may recall how we detoured all I-64 traffic at Skinker and Hanley Roads and ran everyone along Clayton Road all weekend. It was a very difficult detour, and needless to say we only wanted to have to do that once. So we decided to take down all three bridges at the same time even though we weren't going to rebuild them all on the same schedule. Under our contract Bellevue had a 180 day time limit that it could be down, while there was no such limit on either of the other two structures. Bellevue reopened in February, we're putting the finishing touches on Highland Terrace and pouring the deck at Boland tomorrow. Both structures should be open by June.

Dan

chris: Have girders been set yet over McKnight and is it still scheduled to be open be the end of May?

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: We set four girders there yesterday and should set the remaining four later this week. I'll have photos of it posted on the website later today. Weather permitting we still plan to have it open by June.

Dan

Chris H: Are the bridge girders over Lindbergh that are being spliced together bolted together with some sort of gusset plate or are they welded together? If welded is there any post weld testing done to ensure the integrity of the weld?

Linda Wilson, Todd Waelterman and David Wrone: The girders are spliced with four steel plates (on the top and bottom and both sides) held together with as many as 400 one-inch steel bolts.

Dan