MoDOT Seeks to Permanently Close Thurman Ave.
I’ve been ranting about how highways have dissected our city’s street gird and really disrupted life for decades. But I thought it was over, after all, the highways have been built through the city for decades now. I was wrong, enter MoDOT.
I learned at last night’s Preservation Board that MoDOT wants to remove the I-44 bridge over Thurman Avenue connecting Shaw on the south to what was McRee Town (now Botanical Heights) on the north (map). The road under the highway has been closed to vehicular traffic for probably a good 20 years but pedestrians and cyclists could still pass under the highway.
Thurman Ave. was closed presumably to cut down on crime with both sides of the highway having their fare share of issues over the years. But we’ve leveled the bulk of the area to the north for new construction and on the south new homes will soon be going up on vacant lots.
We should be discussing reopening Thurman Ave., not closing it. But, MoDOT doesn’t like the expense of maintaining the bridge. Their solution? Remove the bridge and completely in-fill the gap. If successful, that leaves Tower Grove & 39th as the two means of crossing the highway in this area while avoiding major roads. The distance between 39th and Tower Grove Ave is just over a half mile — too great a distance to expect to walk around.
Thurman Ave needs to stay open. The city should remove the barricades and reopen the street to vehicular traffic immediately. Send MoDOT a message — you can’t keep messing up our city by cutting off our access!
– Steve
I propose a new Berlin Wall around our troubled neighborhoods. This way we can contain crime in these areas without affecting surrounding areas.
Who cares? Afterall, no one wants to visit these areas.
This problem is much worse in other areas in STL than your example.
MoDOT along with local elected officials have walled off neighborhoods for many years. At the same time, these local officials use ED, after promoting decay and blight, to promote new developments and promises of “new urbanism”.
Unfortunately, these plans rarely meet the promised representations and too often ignore the neds of surrounding neighborhoods. Care to write about other examples and other plans of to “wall-off” neighborhoods in order to save a dollar?
[REPLY I write about them as I learn about them. Do you know of other new examples where were are walling off areas? If so, please share. – SLP]
Several times ive crossed underneath this barricaded underpass at night on my bicycle. Its not a welcoming place, and the creepy feeling spreads to both neighborhoods. There are little no-man-lands on both sides of the underpass (notice that Shaw has mostly escaped extreme urban blight, except for several adjecent blocks along DeTonty). Why is it an undesirable place? Not because it is under a bridge, I have no problem crossing @ 39th street or Tower Grove. Because, it is unobservable, it cant be monitored by the public.
Opening the connection between the neighborhoods would reinforce neighborhood ties and connect both to the resources of the other (businesses, which both neighborhoods are desperate for). When people can move around the neighborhoods, extra eyes always watching discourage so called bad behavior.
The redevelopment North of 44 wont be long-term viable unless it is connected to city grid. But its being systematically disconnected, presumably for the same old misguided reasons of walling out criminality. Several streets at the outside of the new houses have been permantly closed off with cul-de-sac type turnarounds (see McRee and 39th street).
Perhaps we should investigate opening the under-pass to motorists, maybe as a one-way street, to at least create activity in the area, and keep eyes watching the area.
I’ve long been annoyed by the “dead zone” created by those barricades. Open Thurman and save maintenance costs by vacating the depressed section of I-70.
One can always expect the Rolla-educated MODOT Mafia to come through with another anti-City idea. The City needs to stop playing around with the copper-stoppers and come up with real, proven traffic-calming installations. However, that may take something that the City does not have: money. Though I don’t see the City agreeing to the elimination of Thurman. The p**p will hit the fan from both sides of Farty-far.
I agree. The bridge should remain and the underpass should be reopened. Has anyone been at Elm and 44 recently? The underpass has been beautifully landscaped and even lights installed so plants will grown under it. This is what Thurman needs. The new housing won’t last if there are only a few entries into that neighborhood.
Open up the bridge to traffic and make DeTonty 2-way. That has to be the most screwed up street in the city. It’s mostly one way and it changes direction 3 or 4 times from Tower Grove to Grand.