urbanSTL

Mississippi River bridge widening off design table

http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/344769.html



The design unveiled Monday for the four-lane, $640 million Mississippi River bridge departs from the concept Illinois and Missouri governors touted three months ago -- the idea of some day widening the bridge is off the table.



People from both sides of the Mississippi River got their first glimpse Monday of the bridge that will connect southern Madison County with downtown St. Louis at the first of two open houses sponsored by the Illinois and Missouri transportation agencies.



In late February, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt acknowledged that eight lanes would be the optimum size for the new Mississippi crossing. But problems with congestion could be alleviated later by physically widening the bridge, Blunt said at the time. "You can add a lane on each side so that you have six lanes of traffic," he told reporters at the time.



Now the idea is off the table.



Instead, a third lane can be added in each direction with the help of paint, said Brooks Brestal, an Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman.



Bridge lanes will be 40 feet wide each way, and they "can be striped three lanes in each direction in the future," Brestal said.



Another change in design calls for IDOT to abandon plans to relocate railroad tracks to make way for the new bridge and miles of approaches belonging to the Union Pacific, Kansas City Southern and Terminal Railroad Association lines.



Instead, Brestal said, "We're going to place piers and build bridges over the existing railroads."



continue:

http://www.bnd.com/breaking_news/story/344769.html

Would it be worthwhile to connect this new bridge and highway interchange project to the Pruitt-Igoe site to facilitate development?

Wow did the Biz Journal screw that up.



^Mayby they'll build a Stuckey's and a Waffle House!

quincunx wrote:Look how quick they built the new 10 lane I35W bridge. I know it's shorter and was a national priority, but still I wish we could build an 8-lane bridge quickly instead of a 4 lane bridge by 2014-2016.



New Minneapolis bridge opens, 13 months after collapse

That is because it was a national priority and you have only 1 fairly progressive state to deal with, Minnesota. The major issue here is (and will continue to be into the foreseeable future) that you have 2 different states with fundamentally different mindsets when it comes to transportation infrastructure. One state uses infrastructure to spur development, the other uses infrastructure to respond to development. There is a good argument to be made on both sides, but every project between MO and IL will always cause problems because the two sides are approaching the problems from totally different philosophies - thus a single 4 lane bridge is going to take us a quarter century to do.



This difference of philosophies of the neighboring states is a major impediment to Saint Louis' future. While being right on the river & border was vital to Saint Louis' early growth, there is little doubt in my mind that it is a major limitation these days. It is not a coincidence that other major cities on major water borders (Cincinnati, Memphis, Louisville, Detroit, Buffalo) are struggling as well. A city seems capable of dealing with one or the other ... either a major river or a border, but when the major river IS the border, that seems to be a significant limitation to growth.



Sorry, but this whole project has made me really pessimistic about Saint Louis' future.

February newsletter can be found here: http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/along- ... r-2009.pdf



I believe this is a new approach from the IL side - at least I've seen one drawing that showed I-70 going east and then north of the Gateway racetrack. I think this configuration makes much more sense:

^ You definitely have a great view of the Arch from the PSB, but maybe this one won't be so bad and it could present a better skyline . . .

^ If only the Bottleworks District was built...

^ and if only they would stop tearing down buildings near North Broadway - that's still the district that I believe can really come to life - before any real life is present in the mythical Bottle District or Chouteau's Landing.

Grover wrote:^ and if only they would stop tearing down buildings near North Broadway - that's still the district that I believe can really come to life - before any real life is present in the mythical Bottle District or Chouteau's Landing.

I agree. There are so many buildings that would make great lofts in that area.

Grover wrote:^ You definitely have a great view of the Arch from the PSB, but maybe this one won't be so bad and it could present a better skyline . . .

The view of the arch from Illinois when the arch is basically centered against the rest of the downtown skyline is most striking. The buildings form a great backdrop, and they also provide a good comparison to judge the arch's height.

In my opinion, the vantage point from the PSB is the best view from a bridge. Since the southern end of downtown is more lacking in high-rises, this centers the arch against the skyline ideally.

But when viewed from the location of the new bridge (northeast), the arch appears to the left of the rest of the skyline. From that angle, the shape of the arch is oddly distorted. It doesn't appear anything like a catenary curve, and certainly doesn't appear like a "gateway". I really think the view of downtown from this vantage point will be anti-climatic.

OT: My favorite few of the city is driving east in to St Louis on 44.

Won't this new drive give an apperance of more density as the east-west span of downtown is more evident? My favorite view of the city is coming in from Illinois on 55/70 from the northeast, a few miles from the river before you are due east of the Arch. This vantage is a good balance between allowing the north-south span and east-west span to be seen simultaneously. It seems like this new approach, being more oblique, would be similar. Maybe less 'dramatic' of the Arch, but then a good excuse for visitors to check out the new lookout deck across the river.

JuiceInDogtown wrote:OT: My favorite few of the city is driving east in to St Louis on 44.

Yeah...I've learned to appreciate that view since I started spending time on the south side in 1995! Sort of a REVERSE view of downtown!