By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – The St. Louis Zoo is getting $5 million from Washington to make areas outside the zoo more pedestrian-friendly. The money comes from a budget bill Congress recently passed.
Zoo President Jeffery Bonner says the roads that border the park might look very different in a few years.
He says sidewalks are especially in need of repair.
"We have one sidewalk with a flight of stairs in it, along the Flight Cage, and in order to use that if you're in a wheelchair or pushing a stroller or pulling a wagon, you'd have to jump the curb and move out into a lane of traffic and so-forth."
Bonner says Wells Road, on the zoo's south side, might also be re-routed around the parking lot to run closer to Highway 40.
The goal would be to eliminate the need to cross traffic to get from the parking lot to the zoo. That area is where a drunk driver struck and killed a 7-year old boy four years ago.
Bonner says, aside from sidewalk, another needed fix is the road north of the park that curves near the 1904 Flight Cage.
"We had a car not make that curve and wind up on top of the bird holding building in the zoo. Fortunately, that's a concrete building and it withstood the weight of the car, but that's a horribly dangerous curve, as well."
MO-DOT's plans to rebuild Highway 40 might also affect what the zoo can and can't do.
But don't expect any changes for at least a year, while officials from the zoo, Forest Park, and a number of agencies decide which changes to make.