Traffic relief planned for Gravois Bluffs

By Bill Phelan

Shoppers who frequent the Gravois Bluffs shopping center in Fenton will be happy to learn that traffic in and out of the center will soon move more quickly.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has given the green light to a project that will reconfigure the intersection of Route 30 and Summit Drive located just north of the St. Louis/Jefferson County line. The $2 million project will be built and paid for by G. J. Grewe, a St. Louis development firm that is expanding Gravois Bluffs.

Kristy Yates, a MoDOT engineer, said the project is designed to ease traffic congestion on the eastbound Route 30-exit ramp onto southbound Route 141. Vehicles frequently line up on the exit ramp while waiting to make the right turn on Route 141 to access the shopping plaza.

"G. J. Grewe will be making a connection from Gravois Bluffs down to Highway 30 via Summit Drive," Yates said. "Currently Summit Drive ends at the Polo Downs condominiums, but now it will go all the way up the hill to Gravois Bluffs."

Yates said the new intersection will be unlike any built in the state thus far.

"We are requiring the developer to build a new kind of intersection called a continuous flow intersection," she said. "It will have a lot of unique features and will be able to handle a lot more traffic capacity than a standard intersection, which is what you have at Route 141 and Highway 30."

At a standard intersection, Yates said the traffic signals are green along the main line of traffic about 46 percent of the time. At a continuous flow intersection the main line of traffic will get a green light 64 percent of the time.

"The only thing motorists will notice is that they will be able to get off the highway faster," Yates said.

Once the new intersection is complete, Yates said motorists will have the option of entering or exiting Gravois Bluffs via Summit Drive instead of using Route 141. That, she said, will reduce the number of vehicles using the Route 30-exit ramp at Route 141, located about a half-mile north of Summit.

While G. J. Grewe is under no time limit to build the new intersection, Yates said the company should complete the project before year's end.