Bi-State Traffic Will Be Bad In St. Louis This Weekend

ST. LOUIS, MO — Interstate 64 eastbound in St. Louis will close Friday at 7 p.m. between Jefferson Avenue and Illinois Route 3 as workers perform maintenance to the Poplar Street Bridge, which straddles the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois. The Missouri Department of Transportation expects eastbound lanes to reopen by 6 a.m. Monday.

Crews will be replacing an expansion joint in the bridge, officials said. The closure was originally scheduled for early September, but was pushed back for unspecified reasons.

Work on the Poplar Street Bridge has been ongoing since August. Two westbound lanes are also closed until December, according the MoDOT. The Martin Luther King Bridge also remains closed, further complicating traffic between Missouri and Illinois. It is expected to reopen next fall.

(Beat the traffic. Subscribe to Patch for daily newsletters, news and traffic alerts. You can also download the free Patch app for iPhone and Android.)

Here's a full breakdown of the closures this weekend:

• The ramp from eastbound I-44/northbound I-55 to eastbound I-64 will close at 7 p.m. The detour to Illinois/I-64 will be marked.
• Eastbound I-64 at Jefferson at 8 p.m. The detour will be marked.
• The ramps from Pine Street and 6th Street to eastbound I-64 will close at 7 p.m.
• The ramps from eastbound I-64 to 20th/Chestnut, 14th, 11th and 6th streets will not be available as they are in the closed portion of the interstate.

Officials suggest using Interstate 70 via the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, Interstate 255 via the Jefferson Barracks Bridge, Interstate 270 via the Chain of Rocks Bridge or the Eads Bridge as alternate routes. Using rideshare, carpooling or taking the Metro will also help alleviate traffic congestion, officials said.

But even taking alternate routes, there's probably no way around the bad traffic this weekend. Be safe out there.

Image via Patch