Highway construction causes problems for commuters
Scott BresslerStudents may find themselves looking for alternative means of transportation as the commencement of Highway 40′s reconstruction project has left them stuck in traffic.
In its largest single building project ever, the Missouri Department of Transportation has shut down the major St. Louis highway for reconstruction, causing a significant increase in traffic throughout the city.
Drivers now have to find alternative routes to navigate throughout the city. This controversial two-year initiative is forcing St. Louis residents to change their daily schedules to deal with the new driving conditions.
The anticipated $535 million dollar project has made commuting to the University a daunting task for students who live off campus.
“There are only so many routes from my house to Wash. U., and with traffic and random construction on all of the possible routes, commuting has become the worst part of my day,” said junior Erin Swaller, a commuter student. “It takes twice the time to get anywhere and makes it so that once I go home for the night, I don’t want to go out again.”
The rebuilding of Highway 40 also affects campus clubs and teams, such as the women’s and men’s tennis teams. The new traffic constraints have forced the teams to move to a new indoor practice facility and vary their practice times from day to day in order to avoid the heavy traffic.
“It is difficult for us to plan practices around all the different class schedules of everyone on the team due to the limited times offered to us by the practice facilities and the need to avoid the bad traffic times,” said Ania Tchergueiko, co-captain of the women’s team. “We still waste a lot of extra time in transit, and we are only able to practice together as a whole team twice a week.”
The next two years will be difficult for Missouri drivers, but many believe that this is a necessary sacrifice. Some sections of the highway are as many as 70 years old, with dangerous overpasses and exit ramps that have caused serious car accidents.
Sophomore Danny Levy, a native of St. Louis, attests to the hazardous conditions of the old highway.
“Even if you were familiar with the abruptness of some of the old off-ramps, if you weren’t extremely careful, you could have been in for a nasty surprise,” said Levy.
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