urbanSTL

dweebe wrote:But if they would have spent a little more money on nicer soundwalls, I assure you there'd be a bunch of people going. OMG: LOOK AT ALL THE MONEY THEY WASTED ON THOSE FANCY SOUNDWALLS! TAKE EVERYONE RESPONSIBLE AND STRING THEM UP BY THEIR THUMBS!!!!



People are already b*tching about the signage and lighting on the bridges.

I hate when people make the built environment enjoyable. Everything needs to be clean, sterile, and most important, as cheap as possible.



barf.

Very encouraging...

The second phase of Highway 40 work is at least a month ahead of where it was this time last year, said Lesley Hoffarth, project director for the Missouri Department of Transportation. The reason: less rain.

Gateway is aiming to reopen the highway before its Dec. 31 deadline. The team stands to earn $2 million in incentive pay for finishing early or on time. But it's too soon make drivers any promises, (Dan) Galvin said.

Link

Hell, I'll just be happy when the Hampton Avenue bridge reopens.



Trying to get to the zoo = not much fun. And that's putting it mildly.



Anyway, it's great to hear that Gateway is ahead of schedule on the new stretch of highway. That's the impression I've had for awhile now, as I try to survey what's going on from the Bellevue overpass on my way home from school and along Oakland Avenue. I'm a little surprised that they're ahead, though, when I think about the month-long monsoon season we just had here in St. Louis. (Thank God that's over.)



I will say now that all the trees are green and landscaping efforts are still in progress, the new stretch of 64/40 looks better than I thought it would. I still wish MoDOT would've considered painting the soundwalls, but in some spots, the landscaping and trees may block their view once they mature. I still wish MoDOT would've just replaced the interchanges without widening the road, but overall the project still looks a little better than I thought it would when it opened a few months ago.

We really haven't had that much "monsoonish" rain here in April and May 2009. There were 9 days with more than a tenth of an inch in April and 5 this month. So April was about a third of an inch over avg, or ten percent, quite a bit, but nothing crazy. There's not much in the 15-day forecast either.



April 2008 was actually drier (!) than this April, with a few big rain events and fewer rainy days, but March 2008 was very very soggy and I assume that's what the article refers to. 8.39 inches, almost 2.5 times normal. 11 days over a tenth of an inch, (two of which were the cumulative 10-inch snowfall, which works out to about an inch and a half of rain).



It's easy to see why we had all that river flooding last year. And far worse up in Iowa.

I'm still surprised how little I miss the highway. I'll be glad when it's all over, though.

I couldn't care less about 64/40, the thing I'm lookin foward to are my lanes returning to normal size on my beloved 44.

This project shows that we never really needed to improve/widen this highway. We are doing fine, even without it. We could have used the money for a new Metrolink line.

It's pretty miserable around WashU. Steam comes out of my ears every time some yahoos block an intersection. I look forward to having the highway back.

^are you aware of the cut throughs?

I'm torn, I miss it and don't all at the same time. Living in south city it will definitely be easier to get to destinations like U.City and Clayton when the highway is open again.



At the same time, part of the pain with getting to those locations now is the construction closing so many of the north-south thoroughfares. If there were no Highway 40 to begin with obviously that wouldn't be the case.



Taking I-55/70 to I-170 to Olive to get to work in Creve Coeur really only adds 5-10 minutes to my commute.

throatybeard wrote:We really haven't had that much "monsoonish" rain here in April and May 2009. There were 9 days with more than a tenth of an inch in April and 5 this month. So April was about a third of an inch over avg, or ten percent, quite a bit, but nothing crazy.

I guess we didn't have much rain overall, but it rained on several occasions. These are admittedly superficial measures, but all I know is that I had to wash my car a lot more often than usual, and several of my son's T-ball games were cancelled. There were a couple of periods in March and/or April when it seemed like it rained at least every other day, but it's not like I've kept track of this stuff or anything.



There was some flash flooding at times, but it seemed to be more of a problem in rural Missouri where more rain fell overall, so I'm glad Gateway is running ahead of schedule despite the rain. I don't miss the highway nearly as much as the north-south connections like Hampton. I still think we could get by with a parkway in place of 64/40, but obviously that's a moot point now.

I don't miss 40 at all, but I do miss the bridges over it.

Moorlander wrote:^are you aware of the cut throughs?

Of course I do. It's just that even more north/south traffic is now going to be forced onto Skinker/McCausland. My guess is that the Skinker/Forest Park Parkway intersection is going to become very ugly.



-Bellevue is going to take a beating.

-Boland, Claytonia and Laclede Station are barely options due to the neighborhoods. Boland and Claytonia are pretty much one lane due to street parking.



Until Oakland and Hanley are reopen: the traffic in this area is going to be really ugly.

dweebe wrote:

Grover wrote:

southsidepride wrote:At the same time, part of the pain with getting to those locations now is the construction closing so many of the north-south thoroughfares. If there were no Highway 40 to begin with obviously that wouldn't be the case.

Exactly. And without 40 there would be many, many more north-south connections.

Where are you talking about? Are you claiming there would be other north-south through 2, 4 or 5 lane options between:

-Hampton and Skinker/McCausland?

-Skinker/McCausland and Big Bend?

-Big Bend and Hanley?

-Hanley and Brentwood?

-Brentwood and McKnight?

Yes, though nothing major. Log Cabin Ln, Linden Ave/Central Ave, Yale Ave are three examples, the latter two of which were once former streetcar routes.



Though I believe southsidepride's original point was that if there were no I-64/Hwy40 there would never have been a need to close the north-south roads to begin with.

I wonder what the impact will be on Dale Ave. when Big Bend closes across 40? I'm finding myself using Dale now and then when I never used it before. I will probably use it even more come June 1st. Their must be a few more drivers finding out about Dale Ave.



At the same I appreciate neighborhood feel along Dale. It has been a pleasant change. I'm sure the neighborhood has a different response.

^ not sure if you're employing sarcasm or not, but either way I haven't really noticed the traffic - other than what I see from Metrolink.