A study of Interstate 55 and Weber Road has expanded beyond that single intersection and has branched further into south county, according to Vicki Englund, St. Louis County Economic Council south county sector specialist.

Englund told Port Authority members during their Sept. 9 meeting that the study now is encompassing an area from Gravois Road over to Lemay Ferry Road and then into Loughborough Avenue.

“If I recall correctly, the money was given specifically to look at that intersection,” Port Authority member Bud Schertel said. “So how did the focus shift?”

Englund said the focus of the project did not shift, it “enlarged.”

Jacqueline Davis-Wellington, Economic Council vice president of real estate and community development, explained that study officials had indicated they needed to study a larger area so that intersection will be able to handle incoming traffic from areas other than Interstate 55 and Weber.

“In order to determine exactly how that intersection should be modified and what magnitude of traffic it is going to have to handle, they wanted to look at all of the development that was going on in that area because if they do it, they are only going to do it once,” Davis-Wellington said.

Englund said study members have come up with some solutions that might include an outer road between Union Road and Loughborough similar to the outer-road system in Chesterfield.

Because both planning processes for a study analyzing a potential MetroLink public transit system presence in south county and the Interstate 55/Weber study are both going on concurrently, she said planners are holding off on creating more alternatives until more information is available.

“That whole outer-road system is something they are contemplating doing, but the people at Metro South are doing their environmental study as well, so they’re kind of waiting to see what the other study is doing before they can really move forward with some more alternatives,” she said.

At this point, the Interstate 55/Weber study has finished collecting public input.

She said the study is a little behind the south MetroLink process, but once it generates more alternatives for the intersection, it will have a public meeting in December.