A plan to make streets safer, St. Louis officials announce plan and timeline for $40 million investment on city roads

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - As traffic violence continues to plague St. Louis City, city officials are outlining the plan and timeline for $40 million in funds to make the streets safer for everyone.

In March, Mayor Tishaura Jones signed Board Bill 120 into law which uses American Rescue Plan funds to make one the largest infrastructure investments in years.

A newly released map shows the breakdown of the funding and the streets and intersections where we will see improvements made over the next several years.

Using crash data, the City identified 10 hot spot intersections which are considered the most dangerous.

They include:

• Broadway & Washington
• Grand & Forest Park Parkway
• Gravois, Russell, Tucker
• Grand, Dr. MLK, Evans
• Broadway & Walnut
• Kingshighway & Lindell
• Florissant & Palm
• Kingshighway & Delmar
• Grand & Gravois
• Lindell & Whittier.

The City will spend $3.5 million to address issues at those intersections.

The City will fund five already completed traffic studies which include Goodfellow, Lilian to Halls Ferry Kingshighway, Lindell to Dr. MLK Grand, Utah to Chippewa Chippewa, 6700 Block 4th St, Broadway, & Washington, Downtown.

These traffic studies vary in suggestions and ideas and have not yet been finalized in terms of design. On Kingshighway, it includes a “road diet that will reduce the cross-section of the corridor from six through lanes to four through lanes and a center left turn lane.” The study also suggests adding ADA-compliant curb ramps and crosswalks, median and pedestrian refuges, and curb extensions to delineate on-street parking.

The study on Washington Ave. in Downtown suggests reducing lanes and adding bump-outs, concrete medians, & on-Street Parking.

The bulk of the funding will go towards repaving nearly 32 miles of city streets along five major corridors:

• Union Blvd: Enright to Florissant
• Grand Ave: Holly Hills to Hall Street
• Kingshighway: Gravois to Florissant
• Jefferson Ave: Chippewa to Chouteau
• Goodfellow - Delmar to Halls Ferry

The five north-to-south corridors will be repaved, repainted and include safety improvements.

“I really hope that people experience a safer environment when these projects are finished,” said Scott Ogilvie, the program manager for Complete Streets.

But these projects won’t happen overnight.

“We’re about 18-30 months away from implementing all of it,” said Ogilvie. “The engineering will take us to mid-2024. We have multiple engineers on board, engineering all these corridors and hotspots. We hope to be bidding the projects later in 2024.”

The City says they hope to have shovels in the ground by the end of 2024, with the bulk of the construction work in 2025.

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