By Bill Raack, KWMU
St. Louis, MO. – A major highway interchange project that gets underway next week will mean more headaches for St. Louis motorists in 2007.
Mo-Dot will replace the I-170 bridge over Olive Boulevard and build new ramps at the interchange. Traffic lanes will be reduced in each direction on I-170 for two years, beginning Friday.
Mo-Dot area engineer Karen Yeomans says the work was already planned before the nearby I-64 reconstruction project would be funded.
"We've made commitments to the two local municipalities, Olivette and University City, to do this project to ease the congestion in the area and if we had delayed the project until after I-64 we would have lost the funding for the project," Yeomans said.
Yoemans says the contractors for both projects will communicate with one another to minimize the impact on motorists while roads are torn up on both highways.