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Take Five: Highway 40 revisited with MoDOT's Linda Wilson

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: October 10, 2008 - The Missouri Department of Transportation announced last week that crews will finish work on the first half of the reconstruction of Interstate 64/Highway 40 -- a section from Interstate 170 west to Spoede Road -- before the Dec. 31 deadline. When that happens, MoDOT will close Highway 40 from I-170 to Kingshighway to begin work on the eastern end of the project

Linda Wilson, public information manager for MoDOT, talked about what this early completion means for area drivers.

You have announced work on the western portion of the project will wrap up early. When will that part of the highway open?

Wilson: "We can't define what early means yet. It could be any time between late November and Dec. 31. A lot of what we have left to do is very weather-dependent work. As we get closer and we get a lot of things checked off the list, we'll be able to give a 30-day notice of the date. Right now we have about 80 percent of the work done on the west half. "

How is it that crews are finishing the western part of the project early?

Wilson: "We all started the year hoping we were going to be done early. That was the goal from the very beginning. But when it never stopped raining -- we've had the rainiest year on record -- it wasn't looking so hopeful."

Once the rains eased up in mid-May, Gateway Constructors (the team led by Granite Construction of California, including Fred Weber Inc. of Creve Coeur and Millstone-Bangert Inc. of St. Charles) and its subcontractors worked hard to catch the schedule up. Then they actually moved ahead of schedule.

"That is to the credit of the Gateway Constructors workers and primarily Fred Weber and Millstone Bangert. They are proving why they are the two biggest contractors in St. Louis for highway work."

Does early completion of the western portion of the project mean work will begin early on the eastern portion?

Wilson: "Yes. The east half has to close when the west half opens. We don't have a connection there anymore. You can't get from the east side to the west side anymore, and the ramps there don't work. The same day they will simultaneously open the west and close the east and get right to work on the section from 170 to Kingshighway."

How will the closure of the eastern half affect traffic?

Wilson: "It's hard to tell. From a regional perspective, the longer-distance commuters -- folks trying to get from (Interstate) 270 to downtown or Illinois folks who are trying to get to (Interstate) 270 -- should take the same detour they've taken this year. They should be taking (Interstate) 70 or (Interstate) 44, and we don't really expect that to change. With the western half closure, the worst traffic has been on Clayton Road, Ladue Road and probably Olive, being the closest roads to the 40 closure."

Traffic on those streets should ease when construction shifts to the eastern section where "we definitely expect that Forest Park Parkway is going to be really tough as will Manchester, Chouteau, Clayton Road as well as Delmar, Page and Olve. Those streets closest to the highway are really going to be difficult. This year they've really been unaffected because the closure has been to the west.

"We've been working really closely with the city and the county. They're getting the signal timing ready on those roads and making other changes. We also think there's going to be a lot of north/south issues because when we close the eastern half, Hanley closes immediately. When you close Hanley, you're going to push more traffic over to Big Bend and possibly McCausland."

Before work began on Highway 40, roughly 170,000 vehicles used the road west of I-170 each day while 140,000 traveled the road east of I-170, Wilson said. With many hospital employees exiting at Kingshighway, use dropped to 115,000 vehicles a day east of Kingshighway, she said. Wilson estimates volume east of I-170 is only about half of what it used to be before construction began.

Are the challenges of the eastern portion tougher than those of the western portion?

Wilson: "They are fairly equal. They're about the same length. It's about four and a half miles either side of 170 so pavement-wise it's about the same. But we're not adding extra lanes in the east so it's not as wide as what they had to do to the west. But we have a lot of challenging work to do at Hanley, Big Bend and Hampton. Those are pretty complicated interchanges."

Kathie Sutin is a freelance writer in St. Louis.