ST LOUIS - Morning traffic on the I-70 bridge increased a little today but continued to move well. On the third morning rush hour after all lanes of eastbound and westbound traffic shifted to the eastbound bridge, motorists continue to spread out between Route 370, Route 364 and I-70.  Motorists on I-70 experienced delays eastbound where the traffic merged in at Route 94.
Overall for the 5-9 a.m. rush period, I-70 eastbound traffic had as much volume as last week before two lanes of I-70 were closed, but the traffic is spread out over the four hours. 
"The morning commute went well again today," said MoDOT St. Louis Assistant District Engineer Tom Blair. "We did see an increase in traffic overall on I-70, and this will cause serious travel delays if motorists continue to go back to I-70. We had delays where Route 94 traffic merged into eastbound I-70. We urge motorists to continue using Routes 370 and 364 during morning rush hour," he added.
Many motorists appeared to favor Route 364 during peak travel and traffic on Route 370 remained steady. Signal timing adjustments continue to be made on Route 94 and at Page and Schuetz, which are the two ends of the Route 364 alternate. 
 The worst time to travel and traffic volumes in the a.m. rush before and after the lane reduction on I-70 on the four Missouri River Crossings are as follows:

Route	Before I-70 Bridge Closure	Nov 7 AM Peak
I-70 EB	6:30 - 7:30 a.m. / 5,356 vehicles	7:00-8:00 a.m. / 5,243 vehicles
Route 370 EB	7 - 8 a.m. / 4,115 vehicles	7:00 - 8:00 a.m. / 4,766*
Route 364 EB	7 - 8 a.m. / 6064 vehicles	7:00 - 8:00 a.m. / 7,419 vehicles
I-64 EB	6:30 - 7:30 a.m. / 5,542 vehicles	6:30-7:30 a.m. / 6,152 vehicles

*Incident eastbound Route 370 from 7-7:30 a.m. had 1-2 lanes closed

Along with the I-70 lane closures, the ramp from northbound Fifth Street to eastbound I-70 remains closed until Fall 2013.  MoDOT is performing $63 million in major rehabilitation to the 54-year-old westbound bridge.  For more information on the project, visit www.modot.org/blanchettebridge.
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