Archive for the ‘MoDOT’ Category

PM Peak Monday turns into horror show due to emergency lane restrictions due to mainline work on river bridge

Posted: 2022/11/08 in construction, IDOT, MoDOT
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Commuters on the Facebook page posted alleged commute times from the other side of North County going across the bridges taking at least 45 minutes and even as long as 2 hours on Monday evening when IDOT announced emergency mainline restrictions that resulted in just one lane being available for the evening peak eastbound shortly after 3. This came on the heels after the weekend work (no site post was done about it due to an admin being ill) that happened in the eastbound lanes and another admin detected an eastbound incident on the river bridge during the Monday morning peak period. With an admin at work at that time and another admin unavailable due to fire department related reasons on Monday afternoon, the tip was passed on the Facebook page through a private message and an Facebook post was made during the start of the 6 PM hour.

Allegedly, the same issue of having just one eastbound lane available for the evening peak is supposed to happen on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. This is on top of the 24/7 NORTHBOUND lane restrictions on a critical alternate route just south of the Alton (Clark) Bridge that is currently active at this time and was the location of a peak hour fatal incident last month. If you insist on using the Alton Bridge during the evening peak, you better know those two back roads between Dirt Cheap and the Phillips 66 station and have those options ready to use, because not only you cannot afford an incident on the 367 mainline between the Missouri River and the Alton Bridge, there is now enough problems on the 270 mainline where any incident on 270 eastbound will compound your problems. When admins set the risk forecast to Medium despite quiet weather and sunshine, there is usually legitimate underlying reasons why it was set as such and both peak periods on Monday lived up to the issues:

AM Peak on Monday morning had a eastbound incident on the river bridge, two other westbound incidents further into North County, and a southbound incident on 367 between the Alton Bridge and the Missouri River. Part of the rationale was the strong winds during the daylight hours, but some of it was traffic pattern changes set by MOD

Weekend work to have mainline lanes unavailable at Lindbergh this weekend

Posted: 2022/08/19 in construction, MoDOT
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Starting tonight, crews will close the mainline lanes at Lindbergh to permit the demolition of the old bridge that carried Lindbergh over 270. The bottom line is that the ramps to and from Lindbergh will remain available for use during this phase of the road work. Because the traffic lights and the fact there will be live traffic on Lindbergh, delays are expected and do not be surprised to be sitting for a while. It is strongly recommended to use 170 and 70 around the Lambert Airport area as an alternate.

Ramp changes coming at 367

Posted: 2022/05/17 in construction, MoDOT
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As previously mentioned on Facebook, the contractors for the 270 North project have scheduled big traffic pattern changes at the interchange with 367 that will be starting in the coming days. The biggest changes will be coming to the ramps to and from eastbound 270.

The first major change is that the ramp from eastbound 270 to northbound 367 will no longer be available for use, along with the ramp from southbound 367 to eastbound 270. Instead, Alton bound traffic will need to take the ramp to southbound 367 (Exit 31A). Traffic signals have been installed in that area and they will be activated on May 19 or 20 weather permitting.

The bottom line is that if you insist on going through Alton, expect to spend more time trying to get on 367 depending on how the traffic light patterns.

Eastbound 270 unavailable at 255 this weekend

Posted: 2021/11/05 in construction, IDOT, MoDOT
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Earlier this week, a meme (originally posted last year) was shared on Facebook with the intent that there was multiple weekends of 270 be unavailable on the Illinois side of the river and the westbound closures last weekend was just the start.

This means that the locals in Edwardsville and Glen Carbon will need to go north on 255 and use New Poag Road to get into Edwardsville via the back way (either by that road or by cutting through the SIUE Campus) or south on 255 and use 162 to get in.

The weekend work on 270 isn’t the only thing going on, IDOT is taking advantage of perfect weather this weekend by also going out on a crucial alternate route in the eastbound lanes as well:

Allegedly I-55/64 eastbound will be unavailable from Route 3 to the split this weekend as well, and that means mistakes on or near the bridges will be very costly if they happen eastbound.

For good measure, there is overnight and weekend work happening in North County at various random locations:

However, the major mainline closures should hold off until later this month, when girders are slated to be set at or near the Lindbergh interchange.

River fog has been proven to be a threat especially around this time of the year where temperatures are more likely to flirt with the freezing point. It was confirmed on both the Thursday and Friday morning commutes this week with the temperatures at or near freezing, and as long there is warm days out there, it will remain a threat until the temperatures bottom out and the rivers freeze over.

Questionable weather was the culprit of the incident a week ago Friday – but happened in the eastbound lanes in the second busiest hour of the day. Prior to the end of daylight savings time, the 6 AM hour is still dark especially in the month of October, but if the rumors of the DST being permanent ever becomes law, the dead of winter will have both the 6 AM and 7 AM hours dark – and those are the two most busiest hours of the morning peak for westbound traffic.

River fog is capable of doing this, and often happens in the morning peak:

This was the AM peak yesterday morning, and if you see sunny weather yet calm winds – the odds are that the risk forecast will be set to medium. Calm winds have been prevalent since Wednesday and expected to last into Saturday morning. This was just a few miles away and visibility was near zero. Had the temperatures dropped into the 20s, this could be a recipe for disaster as road crews are often complacent when it comes to the weather forecast by the evening forecasters (they often omit the river fog danger). The morning weather and traffic people have learned otherwise, because next week is the anniversary of what happened in 2017 when the admins actually did set HIGH risk for river fog being confirmed and temperatures in the 20s:

Weekend construction to impact I-270 traffic

Posted: 2021/07/09 in construction, IDOT, MoDOT
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6 AM Update 7/9/21 – some of this has been rescheduled for next weekend but some is still on

There is little going on this weekend with the Cards out of town and nothing else of note regarding major events in the area, so both IDOT and MoDOT decided that this was the perfect weekend to roll out some construction projects.

First of note: a section of Highway 40 in downtown St. Louis is going to be unavailable this weekend. This is going to take an alternative route out of the question in the event things go south here because you can’t access the Poplar Street Bridge from eastbound 40.

Its the start of what is going to be a loaded weekend of construction work. Also starting this weekend, a section of 270 from 55 to the area just to the east of the 55 interchange in Illinois will be unavailable for a few weeks for an project:

The ramps to 55 will remain available but the mainline will not. Plan accordingly if you are heading towards Highland and Effingham.

Just for good measures, they will be out near Highland later today doing repairs:

If the restrictions of using the Poplar Street Bridge wasn’t enough, the McKinley Bridge is also unavailable this weekend:

Last but not very least, the crews will also be playing on 270 over here this weekend, supposedly between the bridges:

The weather for Friday and Saturday is expected to be questionable but keep in mind that this time of the year the poor weather is more likely an random occurrence than an all day thing.

270 unavailable for use at W. Florissant this weekend

Posted: 2021/04/16 in construction, MoDOT
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This weekend an important section of 270 in North County is unavailable for use as crews will demolish the overpass at West Florissant. Unlike the first two overpass demolitions, this one has the potential to be more disruptive as West Florissant normally has more traffic with all the major businesses at the intersection including two grocery stores and a Wal Mart.

With the relative lack of suitable alternatives in North County, here is a run down of other east-west roads that could be used.

  1. Airport Road/Chambers Road – there is an exit off 170 on the west end and you can go to Route 367 and even as far east to Riverview on this surface street. This is the same road except it changes names at New Florissant. As an added bonus if you use Airport Road west of 170, it eventually changes into McDonnell Blvd. Truck friendly route but not recommended for truckers with the exception of local deliveries. This road is also known as Hereford Road in Ferguson but only for a small section.
  2. St. Anthony Lane/Pohlman Road – in Florissant there is this two lane street that is not truck friendly and cuts through residential areas. You can get between Hanley/Graham/St. Ferdinand and New Halls Ferry with this road.
  3. Parker Road – if you don’t mind taking the long way, further north into Florissant is a two lane Parker Road that is not truck friendly and also cuts through residential areas. It goes between New Florissant Road and Bellefontaine Road.

This is why MoDOT often encourages you to use 64 or 70 to get around this type of detour especially if you are a commercial truck driver. There is little alternatives and none of them are designed for traffic overloads in the event of an epic fail on 270 anywhere in North County during the peak period. If you also saw above, the same road often goes by several different names in St. Louis County depending on the town you are in and St. Louis County does not use a county highway numbering system. This is why we do not post these North County options in the Emergency Detour Routes – they’re not that good to begin with and this is even after a few epic fails that has happened on 270 between Lindbergh and 367 in the past twenty-five years. This is in stark contrast to what is on the Illinois side where two of the options are truck friendly, only one option goes through a residential area that is zoned commercial for the majority of the route, and two other options are state maintained routes.

Section of 270 unavailable in North County this weekend

Posted: 2020/08/28 in construction, MoDOT
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Starting tonight, the section of 270 from New Florissant to West Florissant will become unavailable for use for the entire weekend as crews demolish the bridge carrying Washington/Elizabeth over 270.

To help make the detour bearable, crews did open up this new section of Pershall Road this week:

As delays are expected as traffic is forced to use Dunn and Pershall Roads to get around the mainline closure, other options include Parker Road to the north and Chambers Road to the south. The last time these crews rendered a section of 270 unavailable for use over a weekend, there was a fatality in the construction zone. Please pay attention and use some common sense, as there are families that want their loved ones come home from the construction work site every night.

Weekend closure scheduled for 270 in North County

Posted: 2020/06/12 in construction, IDOT, MoDOT
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As announced a couple weeks ago, the section of 270 at or near the Old Halls Ferry exit will be unavailable this weekend starting at 9 PM tonight and all mainline traffic will have to use Dunn and Pershall Roads to get around. Eastbound traffic will have it much easier because Pershall Road is already one-way between New Halls Ferry and Old Halls Ferry and you do not have to take any turns. Dunn Road is not, and the westbound traffic will have to contend with the additional traffic lights.

All lanes are expected to reopen in time for the Monday morning peak period.

Meanwhile on the Illinois side of the river, expect bulk of the closures at or near the 157 interchange this weekend:

MoDOT meeting on I-270 North County today

Posted: 2020/03/12 in congestion, construction, MoDOT, safety
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treatyourself

As the image below, there may be a few weekends on the horizon where cutting through North County on 270 may not be possible later this year.  When does that happen is anyone guess, but starting this spring a long three year project begins in North County.  Today is the day that MoDOT reveals the information that will be the start of a very long summer construction season, and it will be this evening at Flo Valley.

Already the local finest are bragging about enhanced traffic enforcement, given that fines will double once the construction begins.

This post gets major media attention to the point it gets press by two television stations

People often drive through North County as if its the speedway – it is not meant for people to do 90. Just this past weekend we shared a post on Facebook of someone allegedly getting detected doing 130 on 270 at or near Route 3 (unable to embed it).

Jackknifed semi highlights the Monday evening horror show

Posted: 2019/11/12 in accident, MoDOT, Weather
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Last evening I revisited the mentalities made early Monday morning for the snow event that took place during the day on Monday – and virtually every single mentality landed. The only deviation from the mentality was the heavier snow being slightly to the north instead of slightly to the south.

One of the main emphasis was the strong winds causing a flash freeze and as the temperatures started dipping into the teens it was clear that the evening peak was trying to go south for the eastbound traffic, only for the slow to load IDOT cameras reveal smooth sailing almost as soon you get across the river bridge.

eb270-11112019-evenpeak

This was during the PM peak period.  Eastbound consistently was backed up to Lilac from 16:00 to 18:30 and people posted comments later that evening complaining a big sheet of ice just before the river bridge.

Two hours after the evening peak ended, the horror show that would last for over 6 hours and forced the admins hand into upgrading the subsequent morning peak to high risk would begin.

eb270-11112019

I was not watching cameras when the carnage began because of technical problems with my internet service provider but no sooner than the 9 PM news hit Molly Rose tipped off to this issue.  Traffic was allegedly being diverted to the exit ramps at Lilac and Riverview, presumably because Dunn Road has a big hill between the two exits and it was a likely sheet of ice.  (Traffic cameras at Lilac was showing emergency lights over near Dunn Road at Lilac.).

It would be four hours before 270 would reopen at Riverview.  This incident was actually the least of the problems, and it would not be until a tractor trailer failed to navigate the Riverview exit ramps shortly after midnight before access to the bridges was truly cut off.

The biggest of the issues was at Lilac.

https://twitter.com/gabbybrielle/status/1194091796260892678

There is a hill and a big curve either at or near the exit, and that big curve had two big wrecks last week when the weather was perfect. If there was going to be an epic fail with the snow it was more likely going to happen at or near Lilac, and apparently there was one – but not seen any details of the alleged fail surface. We did have another admin that got caught in it:

Soon these responses came in – none of them been embedded because of way Facebook is set up – so we will post links to those photos instead:

EB 270 between Riverview and Lilac
EB 270 at Lilac Exit
EB 270 at Riverview Exit

Pictures show the nightmare.  The alleged incident at Lilac does not get cleared until 2:40 in the morning.  By that point the admins had already decided on the risk for the AM peak as black ice was confirmed, was widespread, and much of the 270 mainline in North County had not had a chance to dry out.  By the end of the AM peak it was apparent that the risk upgrade was justified:

At least three separate incidents happened on 270 on the other side of North County, there were incidents on various ramps along 270 on both side of the river, and plenty of other incidents in the area.

Schools in the Riverbend area made the decision to close today but most of the North County schools remain open for Tuesday despite the fact most of North County is hilly.

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