ST. LOUIS - Traffic continues to flow well around the St. Louis region for the fourth month after the closure of five miles of Interstate 64 from Interstate 270 to Interstate 170 on January 2. MoDOT and local officials are concerned that motorist patterns continue to shift back to pre-closure two-hour morning and evening rush periods.
"One of our continuing problem spots has been the ramp from southbound I-270 to westbound I-64. It has significant backups in both morning and evening rush," said Lesley Hoffarth, MoDOT's I-64 project director. "Despite message boards and striping, motorists continue to brake, switch lanes or just hesitate as they drive this ramp and that backs up the ramp. We will be restriping both the northbound I-270 and southbound I-270 ramps to westbound I-64 to make more room on the southbound ramp."
MoDOT and Gateway Constructors traffic engineers have been reviewing the I-270 and I-64 interchange since the closure. The traffic patterns show the ramps have a similar amount of traffic using them. The northbound ramp will be restriped so it is only one lane. The southbound ramp can then be restriped to move it off the shoulder and away from the guardrail. The restriping work will be completed later this month.
Another change in operation involves allowing work on the other regional roads. In January, MoDOT, St. Louis County and City restricted work from I-270 in to downtown to nighttime hours. On April 1, the agencies decided to create a core area to continue these restrictions and allow daytime work in other areas. The core area is bounded by I-270 on the west, Page Avenue on the North, the city limit of St. Louis on the east and I-44 on the south. Motorists can expect to see daytime work on the roads outside this core area. Daytime work during the month of April did not result in any major impacts to traffic.
With the start of St. Louis Cardinal baseball season, MoDOT's 511 Traffic Information Line and the Gateway Guide traffic website are being heavily used on ballgame days. Ticket holders are encouraged to take Metro to the ballpark or to check 511 or http://www.gatewayguide.com/ for current traffic conditions.
Here are the major observations from the month of April:
· 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.
· St. Louis County reports volumes have doubled on Clayton Road and nearly doubled on Ladue Road compared to before the closure.
· Metro's quarterly statistics for the period of January through March show a significant increase in ridership. MetroBus was up more than 4% over the previous year, and MetroLink saw a 15.6% increase during the quarter. Those gains resulted in a system-wide average increase of 8.6% for Metro's combined bus, rail and Call-A-Ride van transit system. System-wide Metro transported more than 13.6 million riders during the first quarter of calendar year 2008. That was more than one million more boardings than the same period in 2007. The largest gain, 23.9%, was seen on MetroLink during the month of March.
MoDOT and its transportation partners will continue to monitor the roads on a daily basis and provide updates on the web twice a month including a monthly summary. For more information on the I-64 project and to stay updated on the construction schedule, visit http://www.thenewi64.org/.
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