ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – The work on Interstate 70 and the Zumbehl Road interchange in St. Charles County by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) will lead to overnight delays in the next two days.
There will be lane closures Thursday and Friday nights as construction continues with new concrete beams. Alternative routes are encouraged for drivers that use the Zumbehl overpass on I-70.
“I drive it every day,” said driver Rachel Holtgerwe. “It’s a really busy area, but I think in the long-term effect in everything, it will be really good because it’s a bad intersection… There’s a lot of backups every day during rush hour, a lot of little fender benders.”
Two of the three eastbound lanes that go under Zumbehl will be closed off. The third lane will temporarily shut down as well, for 15 minutes while the beams are swung into place.
“Hopefully, in the long run, it’ll be a good thing. It’ll just get some getting used to,” said nearby Huck’s Market manager, Kathleen Mittelbuscher.
The project is part of a $62 million improvement plan in the area that will last two nights with the same situation for westbound drivers on Friday.
“We’re also going to provide improvements to the 94 interchanges as well to make that area functional a lot better, those interchanges were built in the 1980s, and there’s a lot more people and traffic and goods moving through there now,” said MoDOT project coordinator, Stacey Smith.
The Zumbehl and Cave Springs interchanges are being converted into a single point to help ease the flow of traffic.
“It’s going to probably cut down on the number of accidents,” said Harlem, who lived nearby for 49 years. “It’s going to make the visibility much better, the traffic will move better, we’ll use less gas instead of idling.”
Construction is part of the massive I-70 revamp.
To find more information on the project, click here.