Highway 40 Insight

Alternate Routes: Biggest Closure of the Year

Starting at 10PM tonight through 5AM Monday morning, Highway 40/I-64 will be shutdown from Hanley to Clayton/Skinker for demolition of three overpasses. Officials are calling this the most disruptive shutdown for all of 2007. Let’s take a look at the official detours and suggestions for alternate routes.

[Zoom and pan the map as needed; Click on markers for more information; Full map]

The official detour routes are shown above, westbound in blue and eastbound in green. Also highlighted are every road and overpass closure.

Motorists taking the westbound official detour will be routed north on Skinker then west on Forest Park Parkway, and finally south on I-170 to Highway 40. If the lights are timed appropriately and intersections controlled, this route has the potential to flow fairly well. The major areas for potential trouble are:

• Cars trying to access Demun
• Forest Park Parkway at Skinker and Big Bend
• Merging traffic to one lane for the I-170 South ramp — If traffic is seriously backed up here, exit the Parkway at Shaw Park Drive and take Brentwood south to Highway 40
• Double yellow line on I-170 — use caution!

The official eastbound route has motorists exiting Highway 40 at Hanley, continuing north to Clayton road, then east on Clayton to Highway 40. Officials have worked hard to minimize side street disruption particularly on Clayton between Hanley and Big Bend, yet there remain some serious potential trouble spots:

• Hanley exit — this is a congested intersection already. Even with better timed lights or police control I cannot imagine that this intersection will be able to handle the detoured traffic volume. Look for major backups onto 40 and potential gridlock on Hanley road by Dale.
• Clayton between Big Bend in Skinker — Although some side streets are closed here, this stretch of road is home to a large shopping center and hospital complex, causing potential jams.

Now that we’ve looked at the official detours, let’s discuss alternate routes. Unlike previous posts, I’m not mapping specific alternate routes, but will suggest some strategies for getting around backups:

• Avoid Highway 40 — If you live near or west of I-270 and are headed to Forest Park or further east, don’t go near Highway 40. Take I-44 of I-70 to get to your destination. Same suggestion applies in reverse.
• Exit early — The major pinch points will be the exits for the official detours. Be proactive and exit the highway earlier. If eastbound, you’ll be able to see any major backups before Brentwood Blvd, where you can exit and find alternates such as Manchester. For westbound traffic, consider bailing out at Kingshighway or south on Hampton. (Please don’t go north on Hampton and turn Forest Park into a giant parking lot).
• Use the opposite detour — If westbound, you might consider taking Clayton road to Brentwood to Highway 40 if Skinker is too congested. If eastbound, exit at Brentwood, find your way to I-170 north and take Forest Park Parkway to your destination.

Feel free to share you suggestions for alternate routes in the comments area. Also, if you drive near Highway 40 this weekend, please share your experiences. This weekend will be the best training we have for the 2008 shutdown, so now’s the time to learn our lessons.

Update:

As you can imagine, there are several news stories covering the pending shutdown. Most interesting is KMOV’s coverage, which includes video of them driving the detour routes (a mind-numbing 20 minutes long) as well as helicopter coverage of the detour routes. Ah, to have the resources of a local news station at your disposal…

KMOV
Fox 2
STLToday

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 9:19 am and is filed under I-170, Hanley, Alternate Routes, Forest Park Parkway, Clayton. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.