ST. LOUIS - Traffic is flowing very well around the St. Louis region for the first month after the closure of five miles of Interstate 64 from Interstate 270 to Interstate 170 on January 2. MoDOT and local officials are pleased with the success to date and the consistency of daily traffic. The success can be attributed to advanced planning, communication, cooperation and the actions of all St. Louisans.
"MoDOT engineers planned for more than a year to prepare the rest of the interstate and major street system to be ready to accommodate extra traffic flow when I-64 closed," said MoDOT District Engineer Ed Hassinger. "That planning has paid off. The early completion of other projects in the region, the addition of extra lanes on I-70 and I-44 and the completion of years of work laying fiber optic cable, installing message boards, speed sensors and cameras and upgrading traffic signals have paid off. Even though volumes have increased on many of the roads, the travel times are the same if not better."
Regional cooperation with all the transportation partners is also a major factor in the success. St. Louis County, St. Louis City, Metro, MoDOT, Missouri State Highway Patrol and local law enforcement, fire and EMS have worked together to prepare for the traffic. The cooperation is a model for the future of St. Louis and how the agencies will work together from this point forward.
"The primary lesson we have learned from this is that regional cooperation pays off," said Garry Earls, Chief Operating Officer for St. Louis County. "We are going to keep these great relationships to continue moving traffic efficiently in the region."
The advanced communications by MoDOT and its contractor as well as the media's attention and coverage of the issue helped the community prepare. Major employers and the business community of St. Louis shared in this communication and made efforts with its employers and shipments to make this successful.
"The final piece of the puzzle was the cooperation of the citizens of the St. Louis metro region," said Hassinger. "The planning, cooperation and communications came down to how St. Louisans would respond. Their actions to adjust hours, take different roads, carpool and ride Metro were the final step in making this closure a success."
Here are the major observations from the first month:
· Morning and evening rush periods are lasting three hours each instead of two hours.
· The peak time during the rush continues to be 7-8 a.m. and 5-6 p.m., just like before the closure. Avoiding these peak morning and evening hours will improve travel times.
· Travel times on the interstates are similar to before the closure and in some sections of interstate better than before the closure.
· In general, the total interstate traffic volumes for the month of January experienced a decrease of approximately 5% in the a.m. rush and an increase of approximately 10% in the p.m. rush.
· Clayton and Ladue Roads have doubled in volumes but the travel times remain about the same.
- Metro Ridership increased
- Metro's average weekday ridership (on MetroBus and MetroLink combined) in January 2008 saw area commuters boarding Metro bus and rail 188,965 times on an average weekday - an additional 17,886 commuter trips on average more than January 2007.
- Metro's total monthly ridership in January 2008 totaled more than 4.66 million boardings per month - a 9% increase over January 2007, which totaled 4.27 million boardings.
- Ridefinders reports carpooling has increased with numbers doubling or tripling compared to same period in 2007.
- 156 new carpools registered, up from 81
- 328 new carpoolers registered, up from 112
- 364 new matchlists were generated, up from 102
Tips for Optimal Travel:
· Drivers should continue to shift their commute time where possible.
o On the arterials, the peak travel times are from 7:30 - 8:30 during the a.m. peak and 4:30 to 5:30 during the p.m. peak.
o By shifting your commute time by 1 hour either way, drivers can many times cut their commute times in half.
· Speeding continues to be an issue especially on I-44, which has a reduced speed limit of 55 mph.
· Incidents and crashes have been and will continue to be the source of unexpected congestion problems. Motorists need to slow down and drive attentively to avoid causing these crashes, which impede the flow of traffic. Move off the road if you are in a non-injury crash.
Here are some of the adjustments MoDOT and its partners have made in response to the changing traffic patterns:
· The I-70 reversible lanes were reversed on January 8 due to the changing traffic patterns on I-70. The reversibles now flow westbound in the a.m. rush and eastbound in the p.m. rush. Travel times remain less than 10 minutes for both directions in the a.m. rush, similar to before the I-64 closure. Travel times are less than 10 minutes for the westbound p.m. rush but have dropped from 35 minutes to 15 minutes for the eastbound rush since the change.
· Signal timing adjustments have been made to all the arterial roads to improve travel time for the main direction. Signal coordination has always been a priority for MoDOT, but recent equipment upgrades now allow us to monitor and coordinate signals from our Transportation Management Center. The green time for the main direction has been extended to improve travel times while the left turn and side streets have the same time as before. Drivers will wait longer to get on the main line, but will have improved travel times on the main route. The result is we are able to handle the increase in volumes on these roads with generally little or no increase in travel times.
MoDOT and its transportation partners will continue to monitor the roads on a daily basis and provide weekly updates on the web through February and monthly updates thereafter. For more information on the I-64 project and to stay updated on the construction schedule, visit http://www.thenewi64.org/.
