Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Forest Park Parkway: Partially Open Again!

Forest Park Parkway: Partially Open Again!

This Post-Dispatch article confirms what I thought was just my imagination:

Forest Park Parkway has opened to traffic again! (See P-D Graphic) Or, at least, one lane in each direction on the section from Euclid to DeBaliviere (the City BPS portion of the project about which I posted back in December '05).

I noticed on Saturday a few cars going down that stretch of road parallel to the existing MetroLink line through Forest Park. I thought maybe they were just lost. Then I noticed the orange barrels, suggesting that one lane was open in fact.

Metro had already reopened one lane of the short stretch from DeBaliviere to Des Peres to partially placate Skinker-DeBaliviere residents who lost direct access to Lindell when Des Peres Ave. was permanently closed to car traffic along the south side of the parkway, as a result of the slightly-below-grade new Cross County MetroLink tracks crossing there.

It can't be buried because of the massive River des Peres drainage works tunnel built under that section of Des Peres in the 1920s.

Hopefully, this means we're getting closer and closer to the day when the Cross County MetroLink route will actually open for use! That'll be nice.

Although by then, I'll be almost done with my PhD coursework at WashU.

Which takes longer - completing a PhD or building a mass transit line? Hmmm...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The media is sensationalist. When reporting that the parkway will be reopening, reporters say "just in time" for 40 reconstruction. Um, a full year ahead of 40's first construction cone is "just in time"?!

And of course, the media is still editorializing that we can't believe this Metro promise, since Cross County is over budget and behind schedule. Let's all ignore that since the collaborative was fired, which was prior to the mid-point of the project, Metro has seen to it that the schedule was sped up and the cost kept in check.