City Road Projects Finish Up Prior to Blanchette Bridge Closure

Road construction on South Main Street between Fifth Street and Ameristar Blvd. finished up last week and the road reopened a few weeks before reconstruction of the Blanchette Bridge is set to begin.

The westbound lane of the bridge will close Nov. 2 and westbound traffic will be switched to the eastbound span of the bridge for about a year. 

Traffic is expected to back up during the bridge construction and the Missouri Department of Transportation is recommending alternate routes like Interstate 364 and Highway 370. 

Construction crews are working to complete road projects that will lead that extra traffic to downtown St. Charles before Nov. 2. 

"It's a big push to get a lot of construction done before the bridge closure," said City Engineer Kevin Corwin. "But I think we're going to accomplish that."

South Main Street should remain open throughout the Blanchette Bridge renovation. MoDOT, St. Charles and Ameristar agreed to jointly fund a bypass road that will divert traffic from South Main Street when it needs to be closed. 

There will be times when Walsh Construction Co, the contractor for the bridge project, will have to close both roads, but most of the time the road will be open. 

"Basically, if they are working, they can switch traffic to the bypass," Corwin said.

Corwin said the plan is to have the bypass completed before Nov. 2. 

South Main Street - Reservoir to Booneslick 

Crews are working to finish up the cleaning and replacing of the brick pavers on South Main Street between Booneslick and Reservoir. The contractor has been cleaning and relaying the existing brick pavers on a new base.

Crews installed underground utilities, placed in a new water main and then cleaned and replaced bricklayers. Work is expected to be completed in mid November. 

Elm Street 

St. Charles has been widening Elm Street to create two continuous through lanes and a center lane at Elm Point Industrial Drive and Highway 370. The road will open to two-way traffic as soon as the contractor finishes striping, hopefully by Nov. 2.