Monday, December 10, 2007

Demolition Derby


St. Louis is drifting into two years of traffic hell. On January 2, the Missouri Highway department is closing a long stretch of the main east-west highway (US 40 - I 64) between the two principal north-south arteries (I 270 and I 170) for complete rebuilding. A year later, that section will reopen and another stretch, from the inner suburbs to the center of the city proper, will be sealed off for a year of reconstruction. Our city isn't that big and our traffic has never been like that of New York or LA, Tokyo or Shanghai, but this could create bloody chaos. By our standards, anyway.

For mysterious reasons, the Highway Department is replacing many of the bridges over the affected highway before the road is shut down, not during the construction. This weekend, our engineering geniuses closed US 40 - I 64 at Kingshighway, a major north-south boulevard in the city, while they tore down the old overpass. A new one was just finished, right beside it. It was the most colorful thing going on during another day of freezing rain.

By the way, this demolition is just a half mile / 1 km from the site of the ice skating rink in yesterday's post.


TOMORROW: Wicked, Wicked City

2 comments:

Lezard said...

Gosh! I wish you good luck for the coming months! What about changing your car for a motorbike?

Thanks for visiting The Hague Daily Photo

U "R" Us AKA Captain Crowe said...

Prompted to take a second look by your complaint of few hits/comments. Maybe a closeup of whatever crazy arc welding is going on in #1 would have been more interesting. But #2 reminds me of standing right next to one of those machines the other day and getting a kind of childlike awe/giddiness at the raw power/coolness of such a beast.