IDOT has started week 2 of the river bridge inspections by announcing the schedule of lane closures. The good news is that they will only shut down lanes just two days this week. The bad news is that there are four days of lane closures for next week. Plan accordingly, as westbound lane restrictions tend to cause backups starting at Route 203 and eastbound starting at Lilac.
Now that they are done with the canal bridge inspections, IDOT has announced lane closures for the river bridge in the westbound lanes today through Thursday for bridge inspections from 09:00 to 18:00. Expect delays and a major traffic backup between the Route 203 and Route 111 area. Update 5/23/12 at 12:37: IDOT has the full schedule released. Inspections will run through next Friday but no lane closures will happen during Memorial Day weekend. Update 5/24/12 at 09:15: schedule updated again, inspections will end on Friday with eastbound lanes restricted this morning and tomorrow morning.
MoDOT has formally announced the I-270 North County public meeting this morning.
Yesterday afternoon between 14:15 and 14:35 there was a large group of motorcyclists that were on the westbound lanes between Route 3 and Riverview causing some traffic congestion. More about this will come at a later post.
Normally when you see posts about stalls it usually happens on the river bridge. This one didn’t happen near the river bridge at all – it happened on the canal bridge around 07:30 this morning. A white pickup truck stalled westbound and is not cleared until approximately 08:20. It takes just 10 minutes for traffic to back up all the way to Route 111, and the backup does not clear until 08:40. Twitter was quiet other than a single tweet that can’t be shared due to adult content.
Crews finally arrive around 08:15. The stall was gone by 08:20
- the backup at Route 111 around 08:20. It takes 20 minutes for the backlog to clear.
Yesterday evening there was some alleged excitement in the corridor due to some high-speed chase – during the peak periods of course. Twitter was active to some extent:
POLICE PURSUIT (more) heading back for Missouri…westbound on 270 at the ChainofRocks Bridge. Police chasing a blue SUV
#STL@Y98listening to the police scanner now. It’s a chase. They got a helicopter going to. Just crossed chainofrocks. Up route 3
@abohnhoff
Sadly the live feed cameras caught nothing, due to the 90 second delay of the IDOT cams from this site and the fact the MoDOT cam was not working. This person they were chasing must had been a very violent man, as most of the local police agencies around here know that the corridor is dangerous enough as is. The outcome could had been tragic but nobody got hurt and the person is in custody.
Second public meeting on I-270 North County Corridor May 22
Posted: 2012/05/14 in congestion, MoDOT, safetyEast-West Gateway published a newsletter this morning that included information for the second public meeting for the I-270 North County Corridor study to be May 22. It will be from 4PM to 7PM at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley (Student Center Multipurpose Room). Given some of the files that came out last April, its obvious that safety and congestion will be the two major topics, as the locals gave MoDOT some heat last year. More information will be released as it becomes available.
Update 09:03: IDOT has released another revised PR regarding the canal bridge inspections. The westbound lane restriction will now stretch into Thursday afternoon. The live feed cameras are now working again but the cameras that haven’t worked for the past few days are still down.
IDOT revised the canal bridge inspection schedule yesterday evening to add additional lane closures on the westbound lanes from 2 PM to 8 PM today and tomorrow. This closure is on top of the eastbound closures going from 5:30 AM to 3 PM. Plan alternate routes as good weather is expected for the rest of the week.
IDOT live feed cameras do not appear to be working right now.
A UIUC student spoofs Celebrity Jeopardy when he makes a video for his class. He chose the canal bridge project as his topic. For all the people that will be stuck in the second week of canal bridge inspections it is time to show a little lighter side of this project.
Just skip to the Jeopardy part at 7:15.
Eastbound drivers here is some heads up for next week: not only you got to deal with the canal bridge inspections from 7 AM to 3 PM, IDOT has added some insult to injury by announcing nighttime closures got pushed back to next week. The restrictions will last from 9 PM to 5 AM from May 7 to May 10. The restrictions start just past the river bridge and will cease just past the canal bridge, and expect some backups well into Missouri, especially during daylight hours.
