Photograph by Dustin Lucas
After two-plus years of horn-honking, brake-tapping frustration on St. Louis side roads, drivers will finally be able to sail down the new Highway 64/40 at the end of this month. And not a moment too soon. Construction on the $535 million project—the largest and first of its kind in the state—began in March 2007, but supposedly shaved years off the traditional approach (and, alas, off many a frazzled driver’s life). For those behind the scenes, the road has been even longer. “Gosh, I’ve worked for MoDOT for 18 years, and I’ve pretty much been working on this project from Day 1,” says Linda Wilson, the I-64 community-relations manager. How will she handle life once the highway is complete? “We joke that it’s gonna be like withdrawal.” Here's a look at how all of that work adds up.
- 150,000: daily number of cars on Highway 64/40 (preconstruction)
- 261,235: cubic yards of concrete pavement
- 65 properties purchased for the project
- 8 major bridges/ overpasses.
- 456 concrete beams recycled material
- 9 miles of reconstructed road
- 238,000 square feet of bridge deck panels
- 60,000 cubic yards of structural concrete
- 1.5 million cubic yards of earth excavation
- 413,000 square feet of
- 157,381 linear feet of barrier retaining walls
- 95,000 linear feet of pipe
- 60 mph speed limit when the highway opens again
- 5 million pounds of structural steel.
