Us 40 Through St. Louis--the Farewell Drive

[rudkipon66]

As some of you may know, I-64/US 40 through St. Louis is going to undergo some major renovations over the next two years. On January 2nd, the western section of the Route (from Ballas Rd to I-170) will be shut down, and will remain shut down for the entirety of 2008, and the route East of I-170 will be shut down for the entirety of 2009. I will say that any of you planning on visiting St. Louis over the next two years should plan on completely avoiding I-64/40; I will also say that a lot of road history will pass with this renovation, and in todays Post Dispatch there was a nice article on the history of the Route...you can see the article, with some nice pictures of some of the old overpasses along the route, on the Post Dispatches Website:

 

http://www.stltoday.com/ (title of the article is "The Farewell Drive")

 

For those who don't want to fiddle with it, here is the article...Happy new year and safe travels to all, Kip

 

The farewell drive

By Elisa Crouch

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Sunday, Dec. 30 2007

 

Sometime between now and Tuesday evening, drive the section of Highway 40 between Interstate 170 and Ballas Road and look around.

 

Three days remain until this familiar stretch of highway — built from 1936 to 1946 — gives way to modernization. Hand-designed bridges will be replaced with overpasses designed with computers. Tight loop ramps built for 35 mph traffic

will be replaced with longer ones built for today's traffic speeds.

 

For those who know every dip and turn, pothole and overpass on Highway 40 (Interstate 64), parting with its quirks is like saying goodbye to an old friend.

 

Take the "no guts, no glory" entrance at Lindbergh Boulevard, for example. It can be a white-knuckle experience for out-of-towners, but Bill Sheridan, of Des Peres, enjoys the challenge.

 

"That's part of the game," he said. "For us who are from here, we're used to it. We know all the rules, who gets to go first and all that. To us, we see order."

 

The highway department's intent in the 1930s was to build a freeway to relieve other east-west roads in the county. Residents in St. Louis were moving to the county in droves.

 

The 14 miles between Lindbergh and the Missouri River opened to traffic in 1938, rolling through cornfields and new subdivisions in the area's western fringe. It was quickly dubbed the "Daniel Boone Expressway." The overpass at Spoede Road, where work started in 1936, was the first bridge over the freeway.

 

Extending the expressway east to Brentwood Boulevard proved challenging. The buildup to World War II resulted in labor shortages and slowed construction.

Manpower was so short that the contractor building the McCutcheon Street overpass asked permission to use German prisoners of war as general laborers. The federal government said no.

 

Steel shortages led to more delays. Work on the bridge over Clayton and Warson roads was held up for four years because of the short supply. Finally, in 1946, that bridge opened to traffic, completing the stretch between Brentwood and

Lindbergh.

 

A SCENIC ROUTE

 

The new highway was three lanes each way in most places, and a favorite for Sunday drives. A grassy median at Lindbergh allowed for two giant globelike sculptures commemorating Charles Lindbergh's first solo flight across the Atlantic. The speed limit jumped to 45 mph from about 35 mph.

 

"It was a parkway," said Thomas Gubbels, senior historic preservation specialist for the transportation department. "It was something designed for scenic traffic."

 

But there were problems. At first, the highway had a reversible lane with a red or green light over it indicating which direction was open. Drivers called it the "suicide lane" for good reason.

 

"A lot of people didn't see those lights," Gubbels said.

 

In the late 1950s, the Highway Department connected the Daniel Boone Expressway with what was then called the Red Feather Expressway east of Richmond Heights.

The new stretch was called Highway 40.

 

County residents could take it straight to jobs downtown. It didn't take long before the highway became congested.

The statues came down at Lindbergh in the 1970s for highway widening. Also removed were the bridge's decorative handrails and lighting system. Soon, green signs covered much of the detail work on the art deco overpasses. Other

ornamentation was lost to repairs and modifications.

 

In 1987, Highway 40 became Interstate 64 between Interstate 270 and the Mississippi River. Soon after, the highway department wanted to widen the highway and rebuild interchanges from Hampton Avenue to Spoede Road, but an

outcry over taking part of Forest Park stalled that project.

 

That left some of the exits and entrances as they've always been — difficult to use, but a distinct part of Highway 40's character.

 

"It's going to change, and change is going to be jarring at first," said Jon Cornwell of University City, co-founder of the website www.40for40.com, dedicated to Highway 40 nostalgia.

 

He'll miss the stone stamp marking the bridge over Clayton and Warson roads. He'll also lament losing the view of leafy neighborhoods, soon to be blocked by sound walls.

 

"It's not going to have as much character," Cornwell said.

 

Peg Sheridan, married to Bob Sheridan, said she planned to take her farewell drive down Highway 40 on Monday or Tuesday in daylight. The next time she will be on the five-mile stretch of road, there will be few, if any, quirks.

 

She said, "It's just going to look like any other redone highway in the country."

 

ecrouch@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8119

[Keep the Show on the Road!]

Take the "no guts, no glory" entrance at Lindbergh Boulevard

 

rudkipon66,

 

Interesting....but what made ole "Blood and Guts" special?

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave

[usroadman]

From the satellite photo it looks like a very tight old cloverleaf, and Lindbergh is a pretty major road (US-61/US-67), so I'd bet in times of even moderate traffic getting onto US-40 from the cloverleaf can be a challenge. The curve of the ramp is very tight so you can get almost no running start. The acceleration lane is short and is also a deceleration lane. US-40 is only 3 lanes there (and 4 or 5 further west) so the odds of through traffic (as well as exiting traffic) being in the right lane is probably pretty high.