Construction, construction -- everywhere construction!

Construction on the I-64 bridge over the Mississippi River.

By Michael Castro
St. Louis District Construction and Materials Engineer

So, it’s spring, and construction work zones are springing up on surrounding roads like crabgrass in your lawn – and are almost as welcome.

As we move into the construction season, especially when there are projects that have stopped through the winter, one of the big questions the department is often asked is “why can’t you finish one project before you start another?”

There are several reasons, but the two biggest ones are keeping up with roadway maintenance needs and money.

With more than 33,000 miles of roadway in Missouri and about 1,600 miles of roadway in St. Louis (most of which have multiple lanes), there simply is too much maintenance that would need to be done to keep the roadway in good, safe operational condition without working in several locations.

But as importantly, it would be an ineffective use of the construction forces in the area, and would drive up the cost of construction significantly.

You see, most of the day to day repairs on the roadway – pothole patching, signal or sign repairs and the like – are done with MoDOT maintenance teams.  However, MoDOT typically designs major construction projects and then puts them out for bid to the contracting community – a process called design-bid-build.  MoDOT simply doesn’t have all the specialized equipment needed to complete major construction.  Having several projects working at the same time means that contractor equipment and workers that aren’t needed for one project can move to another and help the construction contractors stay efficient.  Most construction projects have a specific path of construction that needs to be completed – you can’t place the driving surface for a roadway before you have completed the necessary repairs to the support network and fill underneath the roadway.

All construction projects have impacts, and MoDOT does attempt to minimize those impacts as much as possible – or use the impacts from one project to help reduce the impacts of another.  A good example is the work along I-44 in and near St. Louis City.   The bridge repair work between Grand and Kingshighway reduces traffic to three lanes on westbound I-44.  Lane merging causes a significant amount of congestion around construction.  So, having one lane merge back here improves the safety and reduces congestion between the two work zones. However, the department works very hard to avoid putting additional construction on surrounding routes that people may use to detour around the work or the congestion.

There are more impacts from construction than just congestion, especially in an urban area.  Light and sound around construction zones are very impactful in a residential neighborhood.  Working around the clock on construction may save time, but it usually is more expensive (because of the hazards of working at night, even under lights) and the impacts on the community.  MoDOT does look at working at night – especially when the traffic impacts may need to be significant (such as interstate resurfacing work), but that does have to be balanced with the costs, and the impact to the surrounding residents.

The primary goal in all of this is to ensure that all Missourians have a safe and operational transportation system, while still being good stewards of the funding that Missouri has entrusted to the department.

While driving through work zones, remember to slow down to the posted speed limits, avoid distractions – especially cell phones, wear your seat belt and pay attention to the signs around the construction.