By Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis – Motorists in Missouri and Illinois will face delays and detours this weekend as crews try to maximize the last weekends of the summer construction season.
The Illinois Department of Transportation will completely close Interstate 64 between Route 111 and the Poplar Street Bridge so crews can demolish the 15th Street bridge, part of the new Mississippi River Bridge. It's the last complete closure of the construction season, said project engineer Jeff Church.
"We do have some more than we'll be going next year when we get some of our future projects. We have another couple of bridges on Interstate 64 at 9th and 10th streets that we'll be taking down, but this will be the last one for this construction season on the Illinois side of the river," Church said.
A wide variety of lanes will be closed on the Missouri side, including on the PSB and eastbound Interstate 64. But the coordination actually makes travel easier for drivers, said Missouri Department of Transportation district engineer Ed Hassinger.
"By us working on the stuff over here on the same road it pretty much tells people hey, this is probably not a good way to go and it pushed traffic to 255 and 270 north," he said.
Much of the work over the last few months was deferred during the reconstruction of I-64 in 2008 and 2009, Hassinger said.
Click here for a complete list of closures in the St. Louis region