Tagged: East-West Gateway

For years, there’s been interest in trying to develop more housing, business and recreation around MetrLink stations in the St. Louis area.

Tuesday evening the East-West Gateway Council of Governments will begin hosting a series of community meetings to gather feedback on one such effort. 

Paul Hubbman of East West Gateway Council of Government is project manager for the study.

He says one of their goals is to understand why business development around MetroLink stations has been slow to materialize.

The East-West Gateway Council of Governments has signed off on a set of upgrades to the Poplar Street Bridge.

The improvements include a two-lane ramp from northbound I-55 and the addition of a fifth eastbound lane to the bridge.

Jim Wild is the Assistant Executive Director at East-West. He says the way the bridge is currently constructed leads to daily traffic backups.

"As you go eastbound on I-64, we drop from 3 lanes down to two lanes, and then it increases to 4 lanes over the bridge and that creates a choke point," Wild said.

The East-West Gateway Council of Governments held the first of four public forums tonight for its new study on development at MetroLink stations.  

The project will create a toolkit local stakeholders can use to create sustainable communities around MetroLink stations and encourage business development.

Mary Grace Lewandowski is an assistant project manager for the study and said the agency will use a number of criteria to identify five stations with especially high development potential.