Blog has moved

I have decided to move the blog to 270corb.wordpress.com as of 7/13/11. Older posts here will still be available; all future posts will be on the new site.

I'm in the process of rewriting this blog tonight, and it will be easier to read all about the issues when it is all said and done.

More overnight restrictions

It was obvious that IDOT was just getting warmed up with the morning lane restrictions. They have announced more restrictions in the overnight hours for the canal bridge in both directions from 9PM to 5AM Sunday through Thursday through July 22.

Lane restrictions on river bridge today

Sorry for the late update but a power failure kept me off the computer most of the night. KMOV is reporting that IDOT is planning for lane restrictions from 9 AM to noon today on the river bridge for pavement inspections.

Plan for major delays or use the Clark Bridge.

Second straight day of incidents

Last night while at work, mobile twitter displayed these four tweets in the same time frame. In addition, one of my followers sent me a tweet about it as well. However, there is no link with any details out there right now so I will have to camp the Mitchell FD website for any possible details at a later time.

ksdknews KSDK

Westbound I-270 reopens following accident at the Chain of Rocks Canal Bridge.

11 hours ago

ksdknews KSDK

Westbound I-270 closed at the Chain of Rocks Canal Bridge following an accident.

13 hours ago

StLouisTraffic MoDOT STL Traffic

CLEARED: INCIDENT EB I-270 AT MISSISSIPPI RIVER

13 hours ago

StLouisTraffic MoDOT STL Traffic

NEW: INCIDENT EB I-270 AT MISSISSIPPI RIVER CLOSED

13 hours ago

Another incident at Riverview

Today was just one of those days. An already bad enough delay on the eastbound lanes due to the canal bridge repairs got even worse when this happened:

Traffic backed up to Bellefontaine Road as crews tried to clean up that mess.

The canal bridge work isn't done, as the Alton Telegraph has posted tonight that there will be more work tomorrow. IDOT traffic site has confirmed it. Plan on seeing more delays or wait til at least 3:30 PM to cross the river, or just use the Clark Bridge.
Don't forget that the river is also running very high and there will be distracted drivers, especially during the first thing in the morning where they are facing the sunlight. Bookmark this link to your smartphone or computer so you can get your sneak peeks before you cross the river.

more canal bridge restrictions June 22

Since the people that rely on the canal bridge got off the hook with lane restrictions this week thanks to Mother Nature, IDOT has posted on stl-traffic.org website that there will be more lane restrictions on June 22 from 7AM to 3PM. Plan on using alternate routes such as the Clark Bridge as there is potential for 5 mile backups trying to get through the zone or pray for more rain for that day.

Quick MoDOT/IDOT updates

Both IDOT and MoDOT made some announcements today, so lets get to the details quickly as computer time is very limited:

• MoDOT started the switch to the variable advisory speeds today.
• IDOT got more patching work coming up on the canal bridge on the eastbound lanes, since their press release link won't work correctly, all that will be mentioned is that it will happen next week during off-peak times.

If anyone hasn't noticed in recent weeks, the driving surface of the canal bridge is pretty much a piece of crap. Plan on using alternate routes to get around this mess, as IDOT is starting to adopt the MoDOT dirty bag of tricks.

Speaking of those tricks, MoDOT got the Poplar St. Bridge and some of the Highway 40 approaches all but shut down this weekend, so expect a higher than normal amount of traffic on the canal and river bridge this weekend.

Vacation

Unless anything important happens, there will be no updates for the next 3 weeks due to vacation and having to work potentially 7 straight nights when I return to work from vacation. I will be keeping tabs on twitter when I am out of town, however.

IDOT added another camera link from the bridge, and you can just forget using the MP1 live feed video. This one literally puts you on the bridge.

East-West Gateway gets an earful

With the temperatures heating up, it was time to turn up the heat on the East-West Gateway Long Term Transportation plans. I gave some of them a few choice words, wrote some strong comments on their comment forms, and found that IDOT pretty much skipped the meeting. (Conversely some of the MoDOT big shots were there.)

I simply wrote comments based on the previous posts on this blog. Some of the stuff mentioned included the aftermath of the December 8, 2010 incident, the left turn lane on Route 143 to the Clark Bridge that only handles 5 vehicles, the lack of shoulders on the river bridge itself, and the amount of truck traffic.

It is not too late to send your views about the long term plans to East-West Gateway. The more heat that is put on them, it can put all the heat on IDOT to do something. Until 5 PM on June 17, you can view the Virtual Open House and email comments to LRP@ewgateway.org.

More lane restrictions tomorrow

It been a slow month, which can be a blessing and a curse. There were those moments where the peeps had to put up with the delays with the canal bridge inspections, but finding little on the MoDOT "StLouisTraffic" twitter feed all month long (just a single stall) made May a total win.

Good things don't last long, however. IDOT is planning on lane restrictions tomorrow during off-peak hours on the river bridge for deck repairs. Its not the only dirty trick in the works, as IDOT got more contracts up for letting for June 17. This letting includes the canal bridge replacement project (packaged with the reconstruction of the Route 3 interchange for good measure), and repairs to the river bridge. (The details are on pages 19 and 29.)

Due to the severe weather last Wednesday, I was unable to unload my thoughts on the East-West Gateway long term transportation plan as intended. However, they will have to deal with yours truly tomorrow at lunch hour. This corridor needs to be fast tracked and waiting will not solve any issues.

East-West Gateway newest long term plans - they need to be fast tracked

This week, East-West Gateway released some of their 2040 long term plans in regards to transportation. The section of 270 from the Mississippi River to Route 111 was put in the 2021-2040 range for an estimated cost of $700M. The high cost was not surprising at all. Its just surprising that IDOT wants to do anything to avoid that corridor by putting it off. They have put it off for over 20 years already (more like 25 years), and all those locals know it (the 1996-1998 and 2008 projects were nothing more than band-aids). They know that any issue happens becomes big problems almost instantly and there been way too many examples to count (some of the biggest ones already been noted in earlier posts). Everyone knows that safety is a big problem, capacity is an issue, and both the canal and river bridges is falling apart. MoDOT told the truth last month but IDOT has kept their mouth shut. IDOT has spoke very little about their canal bridge replacement project and little details were known until the Corps of Engineers posted their application earlier this year.

The good news is that there is a public hearing in regards to the 2040 Legacy plan by East-West Gateway coming up later this month. This is the best opportunity to let IDOT have some serious heat, cause they have ignored the I-270 corridor for as long as anyone can remember. IDOT needs to wake up now. MoDOT is speaking out because the locals already gave them the heat about the corridor.

upcoming canal bridge work

Well IDOT is starting their annual inspections on the canal bridge this week, along with other repairs during off peak hours. For the people that rely on going over the Chain of Rocks on a regular basis, pray hard for rain. (Honestly, nobody wants to see any more rain, but the upcoming work is weather permitting.)

Last week, KMOX posted an article about MoDOT funding issues. Apparently, MoDOT isn't shy about what really needs to be fixed when it comes to bridges. They already conceded with the safety issues, now with replacing the whole thing? IDOT really needs to wake up and face the music.

Some saftey bits from the North Corridor study

MoDOT posted this PDF file today in regards to safety on the I-270 mainline from 367 to the Chain of Rocks Bridge. Almost the entire section is rated poor or very poor in regards to safety. (Note: this link is only up until April 28.)

The deadline of submitting comments is April 28. (Please use I-270 North Corridor Study Comment for the subject line.)

At the very least one state has now come forward to admit safety is a big problem on the bridge. Now the waiting begins for IDOT to step up to the plate and tell the truth.

Yesterdays tractor-trailer incident happened at almost the exact same spot where the fatal incident happened on December 8. It isn't surprising that the median wall hasn't even been fixed from the first incident, and suddenly the damaged section has grown by thirty or forty feet.

Another incident and recent media attention to the I-270 corridor study

This morning, there was another incident on the bridge, this one involving two tractor-trailers getting hunged up in the median wall. This one reduced traffic to one lane in each direction for approximately 2 hours. KMOV has photos here about the incident.

The local news media is also giving the I-270 North Corridor study that is tomorrow some publicity as well. At least two stations have put it on the news, including KTVI and KMOV. It time to tell MoDOT that no matter what you do on 270 in North County, the biggest issue is actually east of 367.

the new IDOT 5 year plan screws over the 270 corridor

The new IDOT 5-year plan has confirmed that they rather budget their money anywhere but the I-270 corridor. Out of the $11.6B plan, just $103M is planned for the I-270 corridor, and all of that is to replace those canal bridges during FY 2012. Two other known projects that were on the FY 2011-2016 plan have been withdrawn from the new plan. One of them was a rumored corridor study between the river to Route 111, which is desperately needed. The public really needs to give IDOT some major heat for this. Their neighbors across the river is not shy about the issues on the I-270 corridor, and the locals over there have been known to unload some serious heat to MoDOT in regards to the issues on 270 in North County in the past.

Historically, IDOT has never gave a care to the I-270 corridor in the Metro East. They have proven time and time again that they would rather spend the funds beefing up other corridors that don't provide a direct relief to the I-270 corridor. It took the Alton-River Bend area over twenty years to get IDOT to cave into pressure to replace the Clark Bridge and IDOT decides to botch the design of the Illinois approaches to the replacement bridge with short single turn lanes from IL 143 and US 67 (not to mention not fully completing them until 2 years after it opened). As a result, every time that things go wrong on the CoR Bridge, those people that rely on the Clark Bridge get royally screwed over. (Actually anything that goes wrong between Lilac and Route 3 have been known to clog up Route 143 around the Clark Bridge.) As you know, the Clark Bridge is the main alternate crossing to the CoR Bridge, and vice versa. IDOT is on the hook of maintaining both bridges, and the only things that seem to go on is basic maintenance and inspections and nothing else.

In December 2010, there was not one but two bridge closing wrecks on the CoR. The first one got tons of news coverage, not only for the fact it involved a fatality, but it happened right before the morning peak period. Two of the daily newspapers had totally different views in reporting that incident. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch talked about the incident and little about the aftermath; the Alton Telegraph talked about the backups leading to the Clark Bridge and little about the incident. The second one came on a Sunday afternoon less than two weeks later and got little news coverage because nobody got hurt and the local TV stations rarely do news at that time during the football season. Both times, traffic on 143 leading to the Clark Bridge backed up, due in part of that single short left turn lane.

What fallout came as a result of those incidents? It appears nothing has been done, as IDOT is still got their hands stuck in that I-70 project that won't directly affect the traffic impacts on the CoR and Clark Bridges, and spending nights and weekends screwing over 55/70 just east of 64. Getting IDOT to run their mouth on the 270 corridor is nothing but a sore subject, and they been doing everything in their power to avoid that issue. The August 1994 incident gave the news media all the tools needed to really expose IDOT, however, there was no such thing as social networking like there is today and the Internet was still three years away. If that stuff was around back then, IDOT would had to absorb some major heat just like MoDOT did with the Highway 40 trash truck accident that happened just 4 years later.

So what did December 8 incident did? The locals went to the comment section of the news articles about the incident and exploited the bridge design. The people that use the bridge on a regular basis are convinced that changes need to be made. Some of them have gone as far as change their job or their residence just so they could avoid the bridge. Read this interesting GraniteCityGossip post from the December 8 incident.

However, given the historical stance that IDOT has had since the 1960s, it appears its going to take another nasty incident or two before they'll face the music and realize that they made a big mistake in pushing the new downtown bridge for I-70. MoDOT for a long time was reluctant in doing any funding for that bridge and for good reason - they're already on the hook for the Poplar St. Bridge and the so called bi-state agreement would put MoDOT on the hook for this one as well.

Since the next bad incident can't be predicted (although all the contributing factors are in place), the locals need to start telling their local representatives to start giving some serious heat to IDOT. IDOT will eventually crack under pressure, they have done that time and time again on the other corridors.

MoDOT announces I-270 North County study date

Found this out via Twitter this morning:

MoDOT_StLouis MoDOT St. Louis Area

MoDOT News Release - MoDOT holds Public Meeting on I-270 North Corridor Study on April 14

Now is the time to let MoDOT have it with the reasons why change needs to be made on the section of 270 from 367 to the Chain of Rocks Bridge. Click here to read their details.

Update 12:45 PM: MoDOT announced a 2 PM press conference today and it includes impacts for I-270 though its at I-44.

Update 2:30 PM: IDOT announces their new 5-year plan. Besides the canal bridge project, it appears that they still don't give a care for 270 on the Illinois side of the river. Take note in some of the District 8 papers that Missouri is the lead agency for the new I-70 Bridge project. None of this is surprising, in fact its merely a coincidence that 270 on the Missouri side is in better shape than 270 on the Illinois side.

Last but not least: IDOT doing overnight lane restrictions on the Canal Bridge starting the 18th.

Don't forget to read this blog from a different blogger that frequently sends tweets.

spring is here and more proof congestion is happening

The St. Louis traffic twitter feed from Gateway Guide is still being monitored, but the last two weeks have been slow compared to recent weeks, with just a single stall in the middle of the night being reported and nothing else. This been somewhat a surprise, as the feeds were common from the previous six weeks starting from early February. However, with summer approaching and the road construction (and bridge inspections) starting up, the number of incidents and delays will start to increase again. Historically, off-peak and weekend closures during the spring and summer months have been common for the past two decades due to various patching, expansion joint repair, and inspection jobs. Don't expect 2011 to be any different from previous years.

IDOT is planning on doing a weekend closure of 55/70 between 64 and 203 next weekend for bridge demolition, so expect heavier than normal traffic on April 9 and 10. (This is weather permitting, though.)

Speaking of heavy traffic, this still from the Gateway Guide 270/Riverview camera should prove the capacity issue during peak periods:
EW Gateway has put the Level of Service (LOS) at a D from Riverview to Route 3. This is surprising, as recent amounts of traffic during peak periods should suggest it should be an E or an F. Any incident that happens in this area puts traffic at an standstill, especially when it happens during peak periods. In the past month, there has been three incidents during peak periods that caused backups over 5 miles long, and only one of those incidents happened on the bridge. (The other two I briefly described them in earlier posts; and I posted the tweet on the third.) This document that also dates from 2004 that details some of the Metro-East needs also talks about capacity needs. Allegedly its a low priority compared to all the other needs on the list panned out since 2004. The new I-70 Mississippi River Bridge has some interesting points from this document:

• Hourly capacity of the Chain of Rocks Bridge is approximately 3700 vehicles per hour.
• Projected AADT for 2020 at 71,100 with westbound peak hour right at 3700 vehicles if the No Build plan was selected.

Keep in mind that document was made sometime in the 1990s. IDOT has since jacked up the projected AADT into the 80,000 range by 2025, and the new I-70 Bridge will only have 4 lanes instead of 8.

When IDOT starts putting out the orange barrels this year for the construction season, the off-peak congestion will obviously be there, and weekend hassles are not out of the question. Although IDOT is spending their time fixing up 55/70, don't expect the 270 corridor to be let off the hook. Much of it is 45-46 years old and is already showing its age. The last hardcore work done on that corridor happened 13-15 years ago and most of it is showing signs of wear and tear. The bridge decks on the canal bridge is in terrible shape, the river bridge is going in that same direction, and the pavement is rough and loaded with potholes (even though much of it was done in 2008). Decades of heavy truck traffic (20% to 25% of all traffic in spots) has contributed to much of the deterioration, and it is common to find overweight trucks on the corridor just to avoid the weigh station on westbound 55/70 near Collinsville. Trucks also use the 270 corridor to Route 4 east of Troy just to bypass the weigh station on eastbound 64 near Shiloh. Route 4, despite being 2 lanes and hilly, has a high truck percent between 270 and 64. The truck AADT on 270 west of 255 never dips below 10,000 while the truck AADT on 55/70 west of 255 does not top 10,000 until the merge with 64. (The overall AADT on 270 w/0 255 is in the high 50s; while 55/70 w/0 255 stays in the high 40s until the merge with 64.)

Brief talk the BND article and a short addenum from last post

On Wednesday, the Belleville News-Democrat published an article on deficient bridges in the Metro-East. Their article went after mostly smaller, minor bridges, as the majority of the deficient bridges are. (Note: their link is only good for a few days after the article.)

I held off on writing this post for a day, waiting to see if the Alton Telegraph would do such a thing in the River Bend. Well, that hasn't come, so I'm not waiting any longer.

This article is bringing me back memories of the infamous night of August 10, 1994. I was watching KSDK News at 10 that fateful night when the anchor broke the shocking news. Plenty of words that I can't mentioned here were said in that house at the moment, and those nasty words were likely repeated in many households in the Metro East. There was little mentioned by the anchor but her voice that night sounded like this was bad.

Rush hour the ensuing two mornings was some of the most f'ed up traffic jams the Metro-East has ever seen. Two broken pins at an expansion joint put the COR Bridge out of commission for westbound traffic, and if you wanted to cross the river you were going to be sitting in traffic for a long time. Things would return to normal by Sunday but IDOT wasn't done screwing with our minds. The following Friday, right there in afternoon rush hour, they shut down two lanes for emergency inspections and more repairs. This got intense local media coverage, and had the social media networking been around back then, it would been obvious that IDOT would receive some major heat.

Meanwhile on the safety standpoint, the weather is getting warmer and this means more motorcycles will be out. Be especially careful for the stunt bikers, they are known to take it to the local highways during off-peak and weekend daytime hours. These bikers will do dangerous stunts right on the highway and have a potential to cause issues.

Fast forward to the 3 minute mark of this video and watch it until the 7 minute mark. This video is very self explanatory and there is several bikers doing dangerous stunts, including stuff right on the bridge. There is at least two other known ROC 2010 videos on YouTube that been filmed on the bridge that I know of. Please stay alert on these nice days for large groups of motorcycles, and if you encounter stuntmen, please give them the right of way.

Why this is a safety issue

Since December, the number of incidents on the bridge has been alarming. Lately I been keeping a close eye on the tweets made by MoDOT from their StLouisTraffic twitter feed, and the number of incidents have increased since this blog was started. Besides the all too obvious incident on December 8 here is a short list of other notable incidents that did happen (some of the links provided have images that is disturbing):

December 19 late afternoon incident that had a stalled pickup and a tractor-trailer, in a fashion too similar to what happened on December 8. The only difference was that the pickup driver decided to run away from the scene, and ended up walking away from this. Like the December 8 incident, the bridge had to be shut down completely to clear the scene, but only for 2 hours instead of 10 hours.

January 9, 2011 had another rear-ender that started with a stalled vehicle in the westbound lanes. This one did not completely close the bridge but the damage was done as traffic was down to one lane to clear it.

On February 18, a car loses control and flips in the westbound lanes, causing traffic again to go down to one lane.

Here is some of the various tweets that MoDOT posted since December through their StLouisTraffic page:

1. StLouisTraffic
   CLEARED: EB I-270 @ MISSISSIPPI RIVER Friday, March 18, 2011 11:04:55 AM via The Visitor Widget
2. StLouisTraffic
   NEW: STALLED TT EB I-270 @ MISSISSIPPI RIVER RL Friday, March 18, 2011 8:59:05 AM via The Visitor Widget
3. StLouisTraffic
   CLEARED: EB I-270 AT CHAIN OF ROCKS Thursday, March 17, 2011 5:57:43 PM via The Visitor Widget
4. StLouisTraffic
   NEW: STALL EB I-270 AT CHAIN OF ROCKS RL Thursday, March 17, 2011 5:34:43 PM via The Visitor Widget

1. StLouisTraffic
   CLEARED: EB I-270 AT MISS RIVER Friday, March 11, 2011 5:49:16 PM via The Visitor Widget
2. StLouisTraffic
   NEW: CRASH EB I-270 AT MISS RIVER ALL LNS CLOSED Friday, March 11, 2011 5:40:02 PM via The Visitor Widget
3. StLouisTraffic
   CLEARED: EB I-270 AT MISSISSIPPI RIVER Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:13:59 PM via The Visitor Widget
4. StLouisTraffic
   NEW: STALL EB I-270 AT MISSISSIPPI RIVER RL Thursday, February 24, 2011 6:08:15 PM via The Visitor Widget
5. StLouisTraffic
   CLEARED: WB I-270 AT MISSISSIPPI RVR BRDGE Tuesday, February 22, 2011 1:15:41 PM via The Visitor Widget
6. StLouisTraffic
   NEW: STALL WB I-270 AT MISSISSIPPI RVR BRDGE RL Tuesday, February 22, 2011 1:06:05 PM via The Visitor Widget
7. StLouisTraffic
   CLEARED: WB I-270 AT MISSISSIPPI RIVER Saturday, February 05, 2011 5:10:52 PM via The Visitor Widget
8. StLouisTraffic
   NEW: CRASH WB I-270 AT MISSISSIPPI RIVER CLOSED 4:43 PM Feb 5th via The Visitor Widget

Notice that most of the crashes happen in the westbound lanes. Right before you hit the bridge going west, you are coming off a curve and you don't get great sight distance because the highway is also tree-lined. Its only 2 lanes in each direction with no shoulders, which does not meet modern interstate standards set by the FHWA. Add in the heavy traffic and the high percentage of tractor-trailer traffic, and you got conditions ripe for a major catastrophe.

The December 8 incident was not the first catastrophe that ever happened, and the scary thing about that incident it only involved two vehicles. (The time of the day the incident happened and the widespread media coverage played a big factor.) The incident on December 19 also involved just two vehicles (but did not get as much media coverage because it was a Sunday afternoon). Get an incident much like the one that happened on Highway 40 in downtown St. Louis during a surprise freezing rain event last month and lets see how much hell it will cause. To be honest, I rather not know what outcome that would have. The June 13, 2000 incident on the canal bridge would be the closest thing of an chain-reaction incident that I can remember off the top of my head and that incident stalled traffic in the River Bend region for hours. The December 8 incident stalled the River Bend and much of the Metro-East well into the afternoon despite the fact the incident occurred before morning rush hour even started.

With all those smart phones out there capable of recording video it will be a matter of time before the next incident happens that gets caught on camera. The locals are getting fed up by IDOT so called "no build" strategy on this section of 270, which has been going on as long as I can remember. Its not a matter of adding capacity, instead its a matter of safety. I have known people that had bad wrecks on the bridge, and others that changed their jobs just so they don't have to cross the river on the bridge.

The next time MoDOT or IDOT decides on a public hearing on the 270 corridor in this area, we need to just show up and let them have it. We waited way too long for a solution to be found. I don't give a care about the costs, we need a solution and we need it now before more dates like December 8, 2010 happen.

Wonderful morning drive west

A one-car spinout just west of Riverview this morning in the westbound lanes around 07:15 stalled traffic about 5 miles, all the way to the Route 203 exit. It was cleared in less than 30 minutes but the damage was done as soon as the spinout happened. It takes about 20 minutes after the wreck was cleared for the traffic to return to normal.

This should show why little problems up on this section of 270 becomes big issues almost instantly. The incidents don't even have to happen on the Chain of Rocks Bridge for the morning commute to go to hell.

new MoDOT AADT suggest increasing congestion

MoDOT recently released their 2009 AADT figures for the St. Louis region, and while the numbers were down from 2008 across the region, there was an increase on the I-270 north county corridor east of Lindbergh. The section from 170 to New Halls Ferry saw a jump of of over 10,000 vehicles, and an increase of about 1500 vehicles from 367 to the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

The last two mornings I been monitoring the IDOT live feed of the Chain of Rocks Bridge traffic, and every morning as early as 4 am the amount of traffic starts increasing, and by 6 am there is slowing traffic as soon as you hit the curve right before the bridge in the westbound lanes. On the website I seen yellows and reds for speed detections in that area during the peak periods from time to time. This is proof that this section of 270 is approaching capacity and something needs to be done.

I'm updating the "Get Involved" section to include various Missouri officials. Keep sending complaints to them, maybe something will give soon.

The growing number of incidents.

MoDOT is changing the speed limits on their portion of the 270/255 loop again, given in the news that came out today. They are switching to variable advisory speeds, from the variable speed limits, as this video shows. You can read their results here.

This news came on the same day that a nasty crash shut down 270 at 367 for 2+ hours during the morning rush hour. 367 leads up to the Clark Bridge, which is a major alternate to the COR.

If and when MoDOT starts that new study being rumored, they better do it right this time. The section from 367 to the COR may only get a third of the average amount of traffic that 270 sees in West County, but that 5 mile section of 270 is where if anything goes wrong the entire area is screwed over with total lack of alternate routes. The incident this morning was a classic example of the nightmare that happened when it hits the fan. The December 8, 2010 incident displayed the classic aftermath of when something really does go wrong. Both those incidents got major news coverage as they happened. Looking back at news archives, anything major that happened on 270 between 170 to 255 got major news coverage, ranging from the TV news stations to the local newspapers. (If the Internet had been around during the early part of the 1990s, the incidents that happened in 1992 and 1994 would have been major stories as well.)

Last but not least, there was an incident at the Route 203 exit last week that had a tractor trailer breaking down in the middle of the eastbound lanes of 270. 4 mile backup during the afternoon rush as traffic was reduced to one lane to clear that incident. This, too, made the news. Something needs to be done to fix that section of 270 in North County and in Madison County, and it needs to be done now.

Shocking AADT figures for 270 in Missouri

Today, there was an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in regards to widening a 5 mile section of 270 between 44 and Manchester. I went into the discussion tab where viewers can talk about the article, and there is quite a few comments "what about North County" already posted.

I went through MoDOT district 6 AADT numbers (the last year available is 2008) and here is some shocking numbers:
270 from 55 to 44: 145,871
from 44 to 40: 163,557
from 40 to Olive: 188,473
from Olive to Page: 182,064
from Page to 70: 171,075
from 70 to 370: 136,925
from 370 to Lindbergh: 184,406
from 170 to New Halls Ferry: 132,817
from New Halls Ferry to 367: 111,005
from 367 to Chain of Rocks Bridge: 56,548

The AADT throughout 270 all the way to 367 is at least 135k for 30 of 34 miles. As soon as you get past 367, the AADT drops in half in less than 4 miles to the river, as that section of 270 is only at 4 lanes of traffic. Given IDOT numbers (posted in earlier posts), it suggest that the section of 270 from Lilac to Route 3 is already nearing the EW-Gateway 2020 AADT projection.

While the truck traffic numbers we not provided, it looks like as you get closer to the river, the truck traffic percentage increases.

The I-70 trucking corridor and the role they will play

I-270 in Illinois and Missouri is considered part of the 4 state "I-70 Corridor of the Future", which is still in talks. This obviously includes both the canal and river bridges, which is the Mississippi River crossing that the corridor favors. Trucks have favored the I-270 alignment around St. Louis ever since it opened up between 1964-1966, and IDOT did major work between 1996-1998 to reflect this. MoDOT has mentioned that various overpasses in the North County area is at the end of their useful life, as the majority of them are approaching 50 years old. Almost every westbound exit dumps you right onto Dunn Road, which is still a two-way highway, which is a big safety issue. The intersections with West Florissant and New Halls Ferry have major congestion due to the traffic light timings, and the Lindbergh interchange is slated for work.

About 20% of the current AADT of 54,700 on the COR Bridge is truck traffic. This been a route preferred by truckers for a very long time, to the point that only 10% of the roughly 116,000 AADT on the Poplar St. Bridge is truck traffic. The EW Gateway has a 2020 projection of 65,000 AADT for the COR Bridge.

Besides the canal bridge replacement project, the only other major work slated in Illinois is the interchange with Route 3. Given the proximity of those two, it will not be a surprise if both projects are done at the same time.

It appears that 2012 will be a very rough year if all the talk holds up.

The need to widen 270 to 6 lanes

If you notice in the St. Louis area, much of the 270/255 loop is at least 6 lanes of traffic. The main exception of this is the section from Lilac to 255, which remains at 4 lanes of traffic. The main reason that this section of 270 has not been widened is very simple: the bridges that cross the Chain of Rocks Canal and Mississippi River would need to be replaced and this would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. (IDOT put their budgeted tab of the canal bridge replacement plans at $100M, just to give you an idea of what could cost.)

In the past decade, that area of the Mississippi River has gotten to be environmentally sensitive and many groups such as the Sierra Club have taken notice. Last month, those groups secured a big win when the Missouri Gaming Commission gave the new casino license to Cape Girardeau. This hopefully, will put a end of over 20 years of proposed casino talks in this area.

During the winter months, this area is a frequent target by bird watchers trying to get glimpse of bald eagles. The eagles love this section of the river because the rapids keep the river from icing over during segments of prolonged cold weather. This area is also home to another bird, the peregrine falcon, and there has been stories of those birds making nests on the bridge piers. Both types of birds were endangered at one point or another due to the use of certain pesticides that have since been banned.

During the spring and summer months, the river has a tendency to run at high levels. Given that much of this area is a flood plain, it is common for some sort of flooding to occur during the spring when the snow up in the plains melt and the water goes downstream.

This such dream been around for 20 years or so. The rumor mill is that MoDOT wants to do another study on the 270 North County corridor. IDOT is just more concerned with everything else right now. Historically, IDOT has never given a care about improving 270, and when you drive on 270 in the St. Louis area you will notice a night and day difference on development on both sides of the river. (Take a note of the AADT on both sides of the river as well.) However, IDOT is on the hook if something goes horribly wrong on the COR and the next time that does happen will not be the first time.

Notes from last East-West Gateway Board Meeting (IL 143/US 67)

Well IDOT requested East-West Gateway to allow them to modify the Highway 67 intersection with IL 143. This appears to be a totally new project as there is no mention about this intersection improvement plan anywhere on IDOT's website. Allegedly, this is the first sign of fallout from the December 8, 2010 accident on the COR, which caused IL 143 from the Clark Bridge to Wood River to clog up with 270 traffic. IL 143 takes a left turn onto the Clark Bridge with a single short left turn lane, which heavily contributed to the clogs during the morning rush. Had the closure lasted well into the afternoon hours, the single right turn lane from the Clark Bridge to IL 143/IL 140 would had been backed up for a considerable distance.

This intersection was not designed for the the traffic overload that happens when a bad accident happens anywhere on the COR. The intersection was finished sometime in 1995, after the August 1994 incident on the COR but before that section of 270 was reduced for construction. There was a notable accident in February 1997 that shut down all the approaches to the Clark Bridge and the bridge itself for several hours - right before a Friday afternoon rush hour. That accident paralyzed the River Bend area until early Saturday morning and caused extreme delays on 270 between 170 and 255.

Introduction

This is a short blog detailing what Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) really plans on doing to I-270 at the Chain of Rocks (both the canal and river bridges), as detailed through their most recent 5 year plan (FY 2011-2016).

In 2009 IDOT made the canal bridges legal weight only structures. As you know, most trucks that go in this area (and I mean thousands of them) very seldom stick to the 10 ton gross/40 ton max limit. Most I-70 thru trucks take 270 across the river in the St. Louis area, and there is a major truck stop at the 270/111 interchange with several distribution centers that cater to them.

The canal bridges have an past history of expansion joint problems, and currently, the pavement is resembling Swiss cheese. This bridge is functionally obsolete and structurally deficient as of January 2011. There is no shoulders on the bridge, and any accident that happens can cause major traffic headaches.

The only thing that IDOT has posted regarding the canal bridges is their $100M plan to replace them. The agency has been hush-hush with all other details since they first made a mention of replacement in 2009.

Meanwhile the river bridge is not without its share of problems. On August 10, 1994, the failure of 2 support pins at an expansion joint on the Illinois approach caused 3 of the 4 lanes to close for 4 days and caused some of the biggest traffic nightmares that the Metro-East had seen. A fatal accident that happened on December 8, 2010 simply reinforced what happens when the bridge is closed. Like the canal bridge, the river bridge is also structurally deficient.

The last major work that happened was between 1996 to 1998. Both the canal and river bridges got a new bridge deck along with other repairs. During this time, one of the worst accidents on the Clark Bridge happened on February 28, 1997 which made the bad situation even worse. Due to the construction-related restrictions for the canal and river bridges, thru trucks were forced to wait out 11 hours for a overturned tanker on the Clark Bridge get cleared - right during Friday afternoon rush hour. The Alton Telegraph put "Traffic Nightmare" as their headline the following morning.

IDOT is planning on rebuilding the interchange with Route 3 and have appeared to put this project on a fast track. The interchange is a poorly designed cloverleaf and southbound to westbound traffic has a small merge lane to work with. Update: this project is being packaged with the canal bridge replacement project.

Apparently, IDOT is planning on doing the work sometime in 2012. Bids for that project were let in June 2011. Because they are keeping so much under wraps so close to this time, the public is lacking their right of knowledge of what is being spent with taxpayer money.