ST. LOUIS – A multi-million dollar road improvement project in north St. Louis County is set to be revealed later Wednesday morning.
St. Louis County Executive Sam Page will speak about the project at Berkeley City Hall later Wednesday morning. The improvements will take place on Airport Road. Page’s Chief Spokesperson Doug Moore told us the road there is in bad shape and that this is a critical project for this area.
This project aims to improve a 1.7-mile stretch of Airport Road that runs through Berkeley and Ferguson. It’s basically between 170 and North Florissant Road.
This is about a $5.4 million project. Moore said $2 million is coming from federal funds and St. Louis County is paying for the rest. We’re told more than 22,000 vehicles travel the road daily.
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Here’s a video of Airport Road that we captured overnight. Moore explained that the St. Louis County’s Department of Transportation rates the roadway a three on a scale of one to ten with ten being the best. Right now there are multiple driving lanes, but Moore shared that this project will actually reduce the total lanes to three. One driving lane in each direction and a shared center turn lane.
There will also be new traffic signals, dedicated bicycle lanes, 60 wheelchair-accessible ramps, and crumbling sidewalks and curbs will be replaced. Moore was asked if there was concern that reducing the number of lanes would lead to traffic backups. He explained he does not believe that will be a problem based on the use history of the road and that this project is more about increasing the overall safety of the roadway.
Construction is expected to begin in the spring and should be done by the end of 2023.