One Year After Opening Readers Positive Toward New Mississippi River Bridge

In the most recent Sunday Poll the ‘Very Good’ & ‘Excellent’ outweighed the ‘Fair’ & ‘Poor’ ratings, 17 vs 8, respectively. The two negative choices barely beat out the neutral middle ‘Good’, 8 vs 6, respectively.

Q: Rate the new Mississippi River Bridge (aka The Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge) based on your overall impression:

1. 4) Very Good 12 [33.33%]
2. Tie 6 [16.67%]
   1. 2) Fair
   2. 3) Good
3. 5) Excellent 5 [13.89%]
4. Unsure/No Answer 5 [13.89%]
5. 1) Poor 2 [5.56%]

As a residential designer for many years I can tell you no matter the wealth of the client — the size of their budget — it’s never enough to accomplish everything they desire. Missouri & Illinois started off with a very long wish list then realized their list had to get substantially shorter.  It works though, we’ve used it regularly instead of the William L. Clay Sr. Bridge (aka Polar Street Bridge/PSB).

I wasn’t able to find any information on traffic counts on the new and other bridges into downtown St. Louis, but an accident on the PSB yesterday morning caused delays:

The accident occurred around 6:15 a.m. and forced all but one lane of the roadway to close. All lanes of the roadway reopened around 6:30 a.m., but delays were ongoing. (KMOV)

I’m very curious to know how reality compares to the projections.

— Steve Patterson