Highway 40/I-64 Shutdown

Well in case you haven't heard -- and you should have if you live in/around the St. Louis metropolitan area -- MoDot closed a major portion of I-64 this week. Starting Jan. 2, I-64 (or highway 40 as it is affectionately known to many St. Louisans) was closed in both directions from Ballas to the I-170 interchange. It won't reopen again until December 31 of this year. Then, once that is reopened, all lanes in both directions will be closed between I-170 and Kingshighway for a year.

So far, the construction efforts I have seen have been pretty impressive. Last year, I worked in a building at the corner of Hanley and Eager roads, and was afforded a pretty good view of the construction of the new I-170/I-64 flyover ramp interchange. Amazing what was accomplished in just one summer!

There doesn't seem to be a lot of dilly-dallying around in this construction effort and while I appreciate there are going to be some major inconveniences for people who are trying work around the closures, I would rather see the project get done in a couple of years and in relatively safety for the workers vs. it dragging on for years on end. And hey, you could always live and work in the city, where no such headaches exist; even if a major interstate is closed, there are lots of ways to get into downtown via the streets. ;)