ST. LOUIS – After hearing concerns from residents and local officials along Routes 340 (Clarkson Road) and CC (Long Road), MoDOT will remove the curb bump out islands installed on the shoulders last year as a part of the ongoing Safety Improvements Project. The project identified safety improvements at 230 locations across three counties in the St. Louis area.
Removal of the shoulder islands installed along Clarkson Road and Long Road will be completed by early summer.
“We heard the community’s feedback and are making changes that reflect those concerns,” said Tom Blair, P.E., MoDOT St. Louis district engineer. “Due to the overwhelming response to the shoulder islands in this area, they are being removed.”
“MoDOT has a robust public-involvement process that has been proven to work over the years, but we did not involve the public and stakeholders while developing improvements for Clarkson and Long roads,” he said. “That was a misstep on our part. We heard the feedback and are committed to working with the community to resolve that moving forward.”
Although the shoulder islands are being removed, Clarkson Road still has a crash rate twice the statewide average for similar roadways. To address that, MoDOT is committed to holding a listening session with residents along the corridor within the next year. During this session, the department will be working with the public and stakeholders to jointly identify concerns that could be addressed with future projects.
The Safety Improvements Project: A Lifesaving Partnership design-build project is a collaboration between MoDOT and St. Louis County. It is making improvements on MoDOT routes in the city of St. Louis, and Jefferson and St. Louis counties, as well as St. Louis County maintained routes to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes for pedestrians and other roadway users.
More information is available at the project website: https://www.modot.org/projects/SLSafetyProject
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