By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Drivers who want to get from the Union Station part of downtown St. Louis to Interstates 44 or 55 will soon have a new way. The Truman Parkway is set to open some time this week.
Joe Kuss, the city's deputy engineer, says the four-lane road only has two stoplights, which should make drives quicker than using local roads in that area.
"Currently people, if you want to go on 44 or 55, most people will go on 14th Street or Tucker," Kuss said. "There's been new housing developed in there, so we're trying to see that we don't get high volumes of traffic in areas where you've got a lot of people living."
The parkway will end at Lafayette Avenue, where the old City Hospital currently stands. But the new road is scheduled to be extended this summer so it will eventually feed directly into I-55.
The road used to be called Grattan Street Parkway, and runs from just south of Highway 40 to Lafayette Avenue.
Kuss says the four lanes will resemble Forest Park Parkway.