South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

County road projects underway, budget woes leave some projects unaddressed

Some road projects had to be cut due to inflation and supply chain issues

With spring and summer approaching, several road and bridge projects are underway in St. Louis County but budget constraints have left some projects on the chopping block.

County Executive Sam Page discussed the improvements at a press conference at the Department of Transportation and Public Works headquarters in Maryland Heights April 19, highlighting six major projects underway in the county.

“It’s officially road construction season and we have dozens of projects underway or on tap for this year,” Page said.

The half-dozen projects include a $2.3 million project to resurface Bayless Avenue in the 6th County Council District along with sidewalk and curb replacement, and signal updates, and a $5 million project for bridge replacement and resurfacing on Allen Road in the 7th County Council District.

The other four projects spotlighted by Page are:

• A $3.9 million project to resurface Midland Boulevard from Canton Avenue to Page Avenue in University City including sidewalk and curb replacement and signal upgrades. This project is in the 1st County Council District.

• A $4.7 million project to resurface Westport Plaza Drive and Marine Avenue in Maryland Heights, including sidewalk and curb replacement and signal upgrades. This project is in the 2nd County Council District.

• A $3 million project to resurface McKelvey Road in Maryland Heights in the 2nd County Council District.

• A $1.9 million project to resurface Lackland Road in Maryland Heights in the 2nd County Council District. This project includes culvert and sidewalk improvements.

In all, the transportation and public works department is overseeing $42.7 million worth of projects, according to Page.

“With all this progress, we ask our drivers to be patient. Our work crews, our road crews are doing everything they can to get everyone safely to where they’re going,” Page said. “We also have road crews filling potholes all across St. Louis County. On average, our road crews fill 15,000 potholes every year.”

Page also cautioned that the county would be unable to fully address all the needed road repairs until it is in a better financial place. The transportation department had to cut $26.6 million worth of projects that were originally planned in the next five years due to the county’s $40 million budget deficit this year.

“Inflation has elevated the costs of our road and bridge projects by 70% over the assumptions our transportation department made,” Page said, adding that supply chain disruptions from the pandemic have exacerbated the situation, as did the federal infrastructure bill which caused construction and labor costs to increase.

“We can’t lean on the county’s road fund anymore … Our budget deficit for this year … is really going to prevent us from going back into this fund and picking up the slack,” Page said.

Projects that get the go-ahead are determined by the road’s “grade,” said Page. The transportation department grades county roads on a scale of one to 10, with one being terrible and 10 being brand new. Road replacements are typically done once a road is graded either a three or a four.

“We’d like to replace them sooner but that’s what we do with the funds that we have,” Page said. “There’s two fundamental challenges to getting the roads fixed. We don’t have enough money to fix all the roads that we’d like to … the second big challenge is that costs have escalated dramatically.”

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