ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) held an open house meeting Wednesday to talk about options to improve Interstate 64 between Kingshighway and Jefferson.
Travelers were presented with three different options also called alternatives for Kingshighway to Jefferson. They were able to submit comments to weigh in on what works best from walking, biking, driving and public transportation.
MoDOT St. Louis Area Engineer Jen Wade said in this stretch of I-64 there are 13 bridges that need major repairs or replaced altogether.
“So, on this corridor, we have different variations of timing for some of the bridges, but all of them need some investment. When we added those up and it ended up being a really big investment. So that was really one of the big impetuses for us to look at this corridor,” Wade said.
Wade said they also want to make this stretch of the highway safer, one way would be widening the shoulders.
“That's always a big boost for safety as well as reliability. We are also looking at just rearranging where the ramps meet with our network, we have a pretty non-intuitive design right now with some of these exit ramps,” Wade said.
Jade Lane said as a commuter this would impact her drive significantly, particularly at Grand and Forest Park.
“They want to make it a surface intersection, and they already did that at Kingshighway, and it hasn't slowed down traffic at all. I think there's a better way to do it than a service interchange, but also the interchange there right now is very poor,” Lane said.
Enrique Riojas is a SLU student who rides his bike, walks and uses public transportation.
He said he is hoping for bicycle friendly improvements.
“Alternative number two has very nice, dedicated lanes across the entirety of the planned area and with connections to train stations here at Cortex, which would be lovely. It's a plan that I've seen that has the most emphasis on the commuter rail because I can bike downtown, but I can't go to Maplewood on my bike,” Riojas said.
There is a website dedicated to this project that has an interactive map.
If this stretch affects you MoDOT wants you to take a look at the options and provide a comment, you can do so here.
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