Road Construction in St. Charles County

Summer road construction heats up

Additional lanes coming to Route 364 highlight a busy season of improving roadways in St. Charles County

By Brett Auten

Single-lane roadways, flashing warning signs and miles of orange and white striped cones corralling barrel-chested workers.

Almost equally a part of this time of year as baseball and iced beverages is road construction and improvements.

Among the traffic and construction happenings currently going on and scheduled to happen are additional lanes on Route 364 (aka the Page Extension).

Frequent drivers of Route 364 will see welcome traffic relief soon as additional lanes on the highway in the Mid Rivers Mall Drive area in St. Charles County will be added.

Since the opening of Phase III of Route 364 in October 2014, there have been increasing issues with bottlenecks near Mid Rivers Mall Drive.

According to statistics provided by the Missouri Department of Transportation

(MoDOT), Route 364 surpassed Interstate 70 to become the busiest Missouri River bridge crossing between St. Charles County and St. Louis County during morning and afternoon rush hours. Also, the Average Daily Traffic (ADT) count on Route 364 has increased 62.5 percent, from 48,000 vehicles to 78,000 vehicles since the opening of Phase III. St. Charles County Government is a funding partner for this project and has led the effort to get this construction supported and completed.

“Shortly after the Page Extension opened, we knew there were going to be traffic concerns and immediately started working with MoDOT to plan for more lanes,” St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann said in a press release. “The traffic counts during the peak hours are three times higher than estimated by the design-build team that constructed 364. We’re happy to report that construction will start soon on this project and

the new lanes will be open to the public by the end of the year.”

MoDOT will start construction this month to add the following lanes:

• Route 364 Eastbound: addition of a continuous third lane from the Route 94 on-ramp onto Route 364.

• Route 364 Westbound: addition of a continuous fourth lane past the Harvestowne Industrial Drive/Central School Road/Kisker Road existing merge lane (Exit 9) to the Mid Rivers Mall Drive off-ramp (Exit 8B). Addition of a continuous third lane past the Mid Rivers Mall Drive existing merge lane (Exit 8B) to the Route 94 off-ramp (Exit 8A).

Traffic disruption during construction is expected to be minimal and to be completed by November. Any necessary lane closures are scheduled to occur during off-peak traffic

times from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The county’s 40-percent share of this $1.2 million project comes from the voter-approved Transportation Sales Tax. This five cent tax was enacted in 1985 and reauthorized by voters three times for road improvements that enhance the mobility and safety of our local roads. MoDOT’s share of the project is 50 percent and the city of St. Peters’ is 10 percent.

For questions about the project and construction, contact Andrew Tuerck, MoDOT St. Charles County Area Engineer, at 314-453-5046 or Andrew. Tuerck@modot.mo.gov.

If I-70 is a part of your life, either personal or professional, and you are interested in the future of traffic, transit and development issues in and around the I-70 corridor there are two upcoming public meetings addressing this topic.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), in close coordination with East- West Gateway Council of Governments and Metro, is in the final stages of a planning and environmental linkages study called Envision I-70. The study takes a high-level look at what I-70 is today, and envisions what it can be in the future. The area under consideration begins just west of the I-70/I-64 interchange in Wentzville and continues

through the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge complex to the end of the express lanes in downtown St. Louis City.

The first meeting will be Wednesday, July 18, from 5:30- 7 p.m. at the O’Fallon City Hall multi-purpose room located at 100 N. Main in O’Fallon. The second will be held Thursday, July 19, from 5:30-7 p.m. at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, JC Penny Building, Room 202, 1 University Drive, St. Louis.

The ongoing I-70 traffic flow improvements project to T.R. Hughes Blvd. to Woodlawn Ave., including the Highway K/Main Street interchange is working to improve the interchange at I-70 and Highway K/ Main Street, relieve congestion

on Highway K near I-70, help traffic flow better from T.R. Hughes Blvd. through Woodlawn Avenue.

Over the past 10 years, traffic along the I-70 and Highway K/Main Street corridors in O’Fallon has been increasing at a dramatic rate. The interchange at I-70 and Highway K/Main Street has become an even greater challenge, with the number of traffic signals causing significant backups during most of the day.

Phase One of this project will focus on the area from T.R. Hughes to Main/Hwy. K, which is the largest portion of the project. Phase Two will focus on the area west of K to Woodlawn. Both phases of the project will add a new eastbound one-way south outer road between Route

K/Main Street and Woodlawn and then continuing on to T.R. Hughes Blvd. Construction began in May and continues through October 2019.

Also in O’Fallon …

On July 3, the groundbreaking began for an expected fiveyear plan to replace all of the water mains in one of O’Fallon’s oldest neighborhoods. The Forest Park Water Main replacement is underway and water main replacement will occur on St. Margaret Lane south of St. Joseph Avenue, St. Mathew Avenue south of St. Joseph Avenue, St. Joseph Avenue between St. Margaret and St. Mathew, Eggering Drive and Ronnie Drive south of Eggering.