The City of St. Charles has put together 2 maps for businesses in the area to use to assist their customers in navigating around the construction. Feel free to download these maps and modify them to show where your business is on the map. You can them make copies to pass out, post to your website, or e-mail to your customers. Feel free to contact the Chamber for assistance.

The $63 million rehabilitation of the westbound Interstate 70 Missouri River Bridge (Blanchette Bridge) will close and detour traffic starting late fall 2012.

Walsh Construction Company plans to close the westbound I-70 Blanchette Bridge and shift lanes to the eastbound bridge starting late fall 2012, and no earlier than November 1. The work will take less than one year. An exact date for the closure is contingent on the manufacturing of steel for the new truss and approach spans. Weather at that time of year could also affect the exact closure date.

Project Summary and Schedule (6.9Mb,pdf)

Important Dates – I-70 at Blanchette Missouri River Bridge St Charles/St Louis Counties

• Friday, Oct. 19 – half of the lanes the eastbound I-70 bridge close in the evening
• Sunday, Oct. 21 – lanes reopen on eastbound bridge overnight
• Friday, Oct. 26 – half of the lanes on westbound I-70 at Earth City and ramps at Earth City closed in the evening
• Sunday, Oct. 28 – lanes reopen on westbound I-70 and at the Earth City ramps overnight
• Friday, Nov. 2 – half of the lanes on both directions close in the evening
• Sunday, Nov. 4 – All traffic is rerouted to eastbound bridge by this evening and the westbound bridge is closed.
• Monday, Nov. 5 – First Monday morning rush hour with reduced I-70 lanes and slow speed limit.
• Mid-Nov/Early Dec - three full closures of I-70 for bridge blasts. Both directions of I-70 closed for up to one hour. (dates/times to be determined)
• Fall 2013 – Westbound Blanchette Bridge reopens. Traffic patterns return to normal.

MoDOT has installed a camera on the top of the Ameristar hotel. The camera takes a photograph of the bridge approximately every 15 minutes. Click here to view the current and previous images.

Westbound I-70 bridge over the Missouri River was built in the late 1950s. It is in serious need of major repairs. Major river crossings are designed to last 100 years with a major overall needed at 50 years. Without major repairs, the bridge will continue to fall into disrepair and emergency repairs will be required at more frequent internals with longer traffic closures. These repairs will become increasingly more expensive.

The westbound I-70 Blanchette Bridge includes a total of 23 spans. Of those, the main three spans over the Missouri River have the overhead steel truss.

The rehabilitation of the Westbound I-70 Bridge will include:

• Removal and replacement of the existing truss spans with new trusses.
• Replacement of the complete driving surface, edge barrier walls and all expansion joints
• Elimination of the three spans nearest to the St. Louis County end and their conversion to roadway on embankment
• Repair all remaining concrete substructure units including replacement of some parts
• Complete replacement of the structural steel in the first nine spans of the bridge on the Charles County side
• Repair of the structural steel components of the long girder spans and the truss spans
• Repainting of all existing structural steel

Construction work will begin early summer 2012 with off peak lane closures. The contractor plans to close the westbound bridge in late fall 2012, no earlier than November 1. It will remain closed for less than one year. During the closure, the eastbound I-70 bridge will have three lanes of traffic for each direction. Route 370 and Route 364 will serve as the major alternate routes to cross the Missouri River.

Click here to see how three lanes in each direction will fit on the eastbound bridge. (51.4Kb, pdf)

Click here to see how traffic will crossover from the westbound lanes to the eastbound lanes between Earth City Expressway and the bridge. (3 Mb, pdf)

Click here to see how traffic will crossover from the eastbound lanes back to the westbound lanes before Fifth Street. (3 Mb, pdf)

This image also shows all ramps at Fifth Street will be open except for the ramp from northbound Fifth Street to eastbound I-70. This ramp does not have enough room to merge traffic into the condensed lanes of three in each direction on the bridge. Northbound Fifth Street traffic will have a signed detour on Veterans Memorial to Route 94 to access eastbound I-70.

MoDOT closed the bike lane on the Route 370 Missouri River bridge in November 2011. The Route 370 bridge is restriped to add a fourth lane on 370 between Earth City Expressway and Route 94. The extra lane will help traffic during the closure of the westbound I-70 bridge. The fourth lane on Route 370 will be removed in 2014 and the bike lane will be restriped. During the closure, cyclists should use Route 364 Page Avenue to cross the Missouri River. A detour map showing how to get from Route 370 to Route 94 is attached.

Route 370 bike detour map to Route 364 (5.5Mb, pdf)

Click here to be added to the Blanchette Bridge project e-mail update list.

For more information, I-70 Blanchette Bridge Project Manager Tom Evers, or Community Relations Coordinator Linda Wilson at 888-ASK-MODOT (275-6636)