ST LOUIS - Traffic on the I-70 bridge continued to move well during the first evening rush period after traffic shifted to the eastbound bridge as part of the Blanchette Bridge reconstruction. Traffic remained high on the closest two river crossings on Route 370 and Route 364.

            "People did the right thing today to avoid the Blanchette Bridge and to use other options," said MoDOT St Louis District Engineer Ed Hassinger.  "We saw a shift in traffic peak times, which means that people are shifting the time of their commute.  People should continue what they're doing and we'll continue monitoring the roadways and sharing that information with the public."

Tomorrow's traffic patterns may be unusual because of voting.  MoDOT expects traffic patterns to be more consistent Wednesday.

The worst time to travel in the p.m. rush before and after the lane reduction on I-70 on the four Missouri River Crossings are as follows:

The westbound I-70 Blanchette Missouri River Bridge was closed November 4, 2012 afternoon and both directions of I-70 were placed on the eastbound bridge.  The work zone has  reduced I-70 from 10 lanes total to 6 lanes (3 for each direction) until Fall 2013.  MoDOT will be performing $63 million in major rehabilitation to the 54 year old westbound bridge.

            For more information on the project, visit www.modot.org/blanchettebridge.

###