urbanSTL

do we know when the tenative start date is for construction and closing the highway?

I would assume we would know when a contractor is announced. Schedulong was part of the bid package that is not in yet.

Expat wrote:Yeah, that bridge looks pretty standard to me. I don't get it. Maybe I need to see it in real life?

I actually paid attention this weekend on my way to the zoo - and I didn't see anything special about it other than the fact that it had the street name on it. It had nice, clean lines about it, but it's a new structure - it should look that way, imo.

Channel 2 had a doom and gloom piece about I-64 on the 9pm news last night (actually 10:30 due to the ALCS baseball game)



Tons of contractors have back out of bidding because of the difference between what MODOT has proposed and the budget ($410 million for construction).



They are looking at scaling the project back. Some options:

1) not replacing the bridges over Clayton Rd. in Ladue

2) not taking the hill by Hanley Rd out

3) stopping at McKnight

4) starting the project and hoping more money will come



Things are not sounding good.

dweebe wrote:Channel 2 had a doom and gloom piece about I-64 on the 9pm news last night (actually 10:30 due to the ALCS baseball game)



Tons of contractors have back out of bidding because of the difference between what MODOT has proposed and the budget ($410 million for construction).



They are looking at scaling the project back. Some options:

1) not replacing the bridges over Clayton Rd. in Ladue

2) not taking the hill by Hanley Rd out

3) stopping at McKnight

4) starting the project and hoping more money will come



Things are not sounding good.

That sounds good to me - scale the whole thing back and do only what is totally necessary.

Yeah I pretty much expected the project to not be built to the plans that MoDOT promised. However, I thought the budget for the project project was supposed to be $500 million. We won't know what's in store for sure until the Design-Build teams are chosen.

brickandmortar wrote:Yeah I pretty much expected the project to not be built to the plans that MoDOT promised. However, I thought the budget for the project project was supposed to be $500 million. We won't know what's in store for sure until the Design-Build teams are chosen.

They gave a timeline but I'm not sure if I got it right. Sealed bids must be turned in by October 20 and the annoucement will be made November 17th.



The total project cost is $515 million but the actual construction part is $410 to $420 million.

^Yeah they had to buy right-of-way for the project too so that's why the actual construction budget is what it is. Those dates are right.

Hopefully, they don't buy right-of-way for sections of the project scaled-back. I mean why buy out a good chunk of Richmond Heights for larger, new Bellevue ramps interwoven with a full-access Big Bend interchange, if you will only end up replacing the Bellevue bridge?

dweebe wrote:Channel 2 had a doom and gloom piece about I-64 on the 9pm news last night (actually 10:30 due to the ALCS baseball game)



Tons of contractors have back out of bidding because of the difference between what MODOT has proposed and the budget ($410 million for construction).



They are looking at scaling the project back. Some options:

1) not replacing the bridges over Clayton Rd. in Ladue

2) not taking the hill by Hanley Rd out

3) stopping at McKnight

4) starting the project and hoping more money will come



Things are not sounding good.

Yikes, I sure hope they build out to the original plan... St. Louis really needs this... That stretch of highway is horribly out of date... the who thing is a big cluster Funk.... Sure i'd like money to go to bistate but this is crucial to our region...

It's certainly true that the geography of St. Louis has easily allowed for sprawl. I don't know that there's a single example of a city 'choosing' density. Without natural constraints the city will expand. I don't think the solution is to make it more difficult to access the CBD. Because of the accessibility of land this would simply lead to more Claytons or Wentzville's. My 2c.

bpe235 wrote:

dweebe wrote:Channel 2 had a doom and gloom piece about I-64 on the 9pm news last night (actually 10:30 due to the ALCS baseball game)



Tons of contractors have back out of bidding because of the difference between what MODOT has proposed and the budget ($410 million for construction).



They are looking at scaling the project back. Some options:

1) not replacing the bridges over Clayton Rd. in Ladue

2) not taking the hill by Hanley Rd out

3) stopping at McKnight

4) starting the project and hoping more money will come



Things are not sounding good.

Yikes, I sure hope they build out to the original plan... St. Louis really needs this... That stretch of highway is horribly out of date... the who thing is a big cluster Funk.... Sure i'd like money to go to bistate but this is crucial to our region...

I agree-- I think those of you who think this whole thing is not needed now are kidding yourselves. Doug may not need a car, but 2.79 million other people in the region do. If we "wait until the project is needed" AKA the road fails... we won’t be able to give people warning. Then what - you are talking real chaos... At least now employers can have flex schedules planned, MODOT can get Olive and 44 and all those other areas ready (except olive/1-70 but that’s another story). It’s a bad situation to be in – having a crappy road that happens to be the life blood of the region -- but I-64 is 70 years old -- something MAJOR needs to be done...



That being said -- options 2 and 3 aren't too horrible -- if taking out the hill adds a lot of money - maybe that’s an option -- and if the McKnight -> Spoede section isn't as old/truly doesn't need fixing - than its an option. #4 is a reporter trying to fill 20 more seconds of airtime and #1 - well it would be horrible to have a whole corridor closed down for that whole time then in 2018 have to close it down again to rebuild the bridge when it fails.... lets do it once... lets do it right, and lets not worry about it again till 2080.

I'd like them to skip that extra lane and just redo the unsafe on/offramps (Lindbergh, Kingshighway, etc.), extremely inefficient interchanges (I-170), and repair bridges.

Jax wrote:I'd like them to skip that extra lane and just redo the unsafe on/offramps (Lindbergh, Kingshighway, etc.), extremely inefficient interchanges (I-170), and repair bridges.

I'm with you on that.

I wish that would fix the situation - but I dont think this has anything to do with political culture.... most of the cities that stand to benefit from it in the long run are opposed to it. MODOT is just between a rock and a hard place on this one... they need to get the road to spec and repair the massive damage that has been done on basically every bridge along the route, and the people like you guys that say "lets go until the bridge collapses"....



I could go without the extra lane as well, except one hour or 90 minutes a day, traffic is ver reasonable compared to chicago (where I have been stuck in traffic for 3+ hours at one stint) but I think if you are redoing all the bridges and repaving the whole area... if the only option is to close at least sections of it at a time... add the extra lane becuase it wont add much time at all... again - do it right so you dont have to do it again til after I am dead.

I thought this was supposed to be a big secret until this afternoon...



Highway 40: What to expect when construction begins

By Elisa Crouch

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

11/17/2006



Half the lanes on Highway 40 will remain open and new ones will be created on Interstates 44 and 70 to handle overflow traffic during the massive rebuilding project that starts this spring.



Thirty-two overpasses will be rebuilt on Highway 40 (Interstate 64), a new interchange at Interstate 170 will replace the incomplete one there now, and 12 miles of aging roadbed will be ripped up, say sources briefed on the plan, which remains under wraps at the Missouri Department of Transportation.



[snip]



On average, about 170,000 vehicles a day travel along the stretch of Highway 40 that will be rebuilt. Many of those motorists will turn to Interstates 44 and 70, which now have three to four lanes in each direction in St. Louis and St. Louis County.



It's unclear how many more miles of lanes will be added along those interstates, and if a lane in each direction would be added to the entire stretch.



Crews will add the lanes by restriping the interstates. Earlier this year, St. Louis County crews painted an additional lane on southbound Brentwood Boulevard so it could carry more traffic during the Highway 40 work.



Link to Story

It was presented at the 17th Ward meeting the other night that stoplights along Manchester from Kingshighway to Vandeventer would be synchronized and have cameras to allow for adjustments depending on traffic flow.

^Actually that is part of a larger project to synchonize signals from Lindbergh to Broadway along Manchester/Chouteau. It won't do much good until the Chouteau bridge gets done.

^ Aha - THAT was the other piece of info I couldn't remember. The bridge on Chouteau just east of Vandeventer is set to open December 15.

Jax wrote:I'd like them to skip that extra lane and just redo the unsafe on/offramps (Lindbergh, Kingshighway, etc.), extremely inefficient interchanges (I-170), and repair bridges.

Me too. And I can just see that picturesque stretch of the road through Ladue and Frontenac (one of the few stretches of highway in the area without endless sprawl development and billboards) lined with massive concrete sound walls.



Any time MoDOT increases road capacity by adding lanes, then hideous sound walls are sure to follow. I pray that they'll find a better way to do it than Interstates 55 and 270 in South County. Those highways look terrible, in large part due to the aforementioned sound walls.



If MoDOT had better planning all along, I have to believe there was a way to rebuild these dangerous intersections and crumbling bridges over a longer period of time (i.e., more gradually).



Thankfully my daytime commute takes me nowhere near this mess, but I'm dreading my evening commute to WashU next semester.

ThreeOneFour wrote:I'm dreading my evening commute to WashU next semester.

You read my mind. I'm just going to take Metrolink.

At first I didn't think anything of the new project, but now I'm starting to worry. I work on Lindbergh just south of 40 so it will probably affect me, even coming from the south. I guess now we just play the waiting game, no?