Keeping traffic moving

MoDOT gets extremely involved when it comes to keeping traffic moving during special events. Over the next two weeks, two big events come into St. Louis.

Next week, 25,000 golf fans will watch some of the top names in golf at the Bellerive Country Club for the BMW Championships. In St. Louis, MoDOT has worked on the traffic plan, which includes temporary striping and daily traffic switches to keep traffic moving into and out of the event. You can read more about that here.

In two weeks, world-class cyclists and cycling fans can anticipate the Tour of Missouri bike race. MoDOT across the state, to include traffic experts in St. Charles and St. Louis, have worked hard to coordinate the routes and viewing areas for this seven day event.

Staying environmentally responsible

MoDOT is making significant efforts on staying environmentally responsible during the construction and maintenance of the roads and bridges throughout the state. On the I-64 project, much of the concrete removed from the highway will be reused as part of the roadbed for the new concrete. In five years, the department across the state kept more than $3.6 billion pounds of waste from going into landfills (about the amount of household waste generated each year by the entire metropolitan St. Louis area). MoDOT reclaims about 70 percent of the state highway signs for re-use and uses recycled glass beads to increase the reflectivity of the roadways. In 2007, the department received an award from the Missouri State Recycling Program for its landmark efforts.

Motorist Assist celebrates 15 years of service

Motorist assist, the men and women who travel the interstates in St. Louis and help keep traffic moving safer and smoother, celebrate their 15th year of service this year. Although, officially, motorist assist operators began patrolling St. Louis in January 1993, they got some of the original members back together recently to discuss how the operation has changed, but in the most important matters has stayed exactly the same.

You can read more about the 15th anniversary of Motorist Assist here.

MoDOT response to recent St. Louis Post- Dispatch editorial

The Missouri Department of Transportation was recently criticized in an editorial in the St. Louis Post Dispatch about allowing a contractor to quality control the I-64 Design-Build construction process, with MoDOT oversight.

Pete Rahn, MoDOT Director, drafted a response to that editorial, which appeared in the paper on Aug. 7. You can read that response by clicking this link.