By Kevin Lavery, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Beginning at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, drivers heading east on Interstate 70 across the Poplar Street Bridge in downtown St. Louis will have to find another way across.
The eastbound I-70 ramp onto the bridge will be closed for about three weeks so crews can completely resurface it. The ramp is the first of four on the bridge that will be resurfaced on between now and October.
Missouri Department of Transportation spokesman Chris Sutton says the ramps are in such disrepair that temporary patches are no longer effective. "The time for band-aids and maintenance work is done," he said. "This is a time when we absolutely have to get in there and replace the driving surface on those four ramps. We have to do it now in order to keep those ramps functional for another 15 or 20 years."
Sutton says there will be signs near the ramp clearly re-routing traffic to an alternative route across the Mississippi River. That route is to take Interstate 55 south to 7th Street, then go south on 7th Street, right on Marion Street, and then you can access northbound I-55 to the Poplar Street Bridge from there.
Other options include Metrolink or using the Eads Bridge, which reopened to cars Monday morning.
About 120-thousand vehicles cross the Poplar Street Bridge every day.
To view MO-DOT's website about the Poplar bridge project, click here.