The first Monday of 2016 did not get off to a good start. With traffic still heavier than normal with the southbound lanes of 67 and the Clark Bridge still off limits with no supposed end in sight, it marked the second time in less than a week there would be delays of at least one hour and a peak hour incident in the westbound direction during the morning peak:
@fox2now I mentioned a huge jam I was seeing on WB 270 approaching 255, it’s due to an incident at the Chain of Rocks blocking 1 lane
— Monica Adams (@FoxTrafficDiva) January 4, 2016
Crash on the right shoulder on WB 270 West of 203, and a stall in the right lane on the Chain of Rocks bridge has traffic jammed thru 255…
— Rodger Brand (@rbrandtraffic) January 4, 2016
Except this morning there is not one but TWO incidents, with the one near Route 3 being the most serious. Both happened during the busiest hour of the day. What do these two incidents did:
I-270 W near Pontoon Beach is brutal today! Will add 1h 37m to your route #STLtraffic https://t.co/j7PL8CMlL4 pic.twitter.com/JzhpJQhGu8
— Unusual Traffic STL (@WazeTrafficSTL) January 4, 2016
The locals in that one Riverbend specific Facebook group simply went off.
If the morning peak was bad enough, the evening picked up where the morning left off:
@Y98Lance three car crash on miss river bridge 270w
— Dave Boduch (@Illini_Dave34) January 4, 2016
The stalled semi is gone on WB 270, but now it looks like we have an incident WB on the Illinois side of the bridge jamming traffic…
— Rodger Brand (@rbrandtraffic) January 4, 2016
Didn’t find anything else about the stalled vehicle but the accident on the bridge itself caused delays in both directions as emergency crews spent almost an entire hour clearing it.
Last but not least came shortly after the 18:00 hour eastbound past the Lilac exit (still active as this post is being written at 19:26):
New: ACCIDENT I-270 EB @ PAST LILAC AVE LEFT LANE CLOSED (St Louis,MO)
— MoDOT STL Traffic (@StLouisTraffic) January 5, 2016
This one blocked one eastbound lane and caused traffic to back up to 367.
If anyone was that interested what happened last week, it wasn’t a good week at all:
New: 2 VEHICLE COLLISION I-270 EB @ AT LILAC AVE USE ALT ROUTE (St Louis,MO)
— MoDOT STL Traffic (@StLouisTraffic) December 30, 2015
Both eastbound mainline lanes were blocked for over an hour – but it happened middle of the night.
Looks like there is a problem WB 270 at the Chain of Rocks Bridge traffic westbound is jamming back through the canal bridge…
— Rodger Brand (@rbrandtraffic) December 29, 2015
That incident caused hour long delays on the first morning of that heavier than normal traffic – during the heaviest hours of the day.
