Rafael Macias The Current

After removing the barriers at the entrance to West Drive (pictued here), the Missouri Department of Transporation plans to activate the traffic signal today. According to engineers, the lights will flash for two days and become fully operational Thursday.

by Benjamin Israel
staff editor

Getting to the new West Drive parking structure should be easier today and even easier Thursday. Plans call for taking down the traffic barrier at the West Drive entrance to Natural Bridge Road today after the Missouri Department of Transportation activates the traffic signals there, said Chris Samples, construction manager at UM-St. Louis.

By Thursday at 9 a.m., the traffic signal should be fully functional, said Dan Bruno, a traffic engineer with the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Bruno said department policy calls for putting a light on flash for two days before making it fully operational to give motorists time to become aware that it is there.

The new signal is a small part of a $9 million project that includes rerouting West Drive and building the West Parking Structure, Samples said. In turn, constructing the signal, the new West Drive, and the garage are part of implementing UM-St. Louis' 1993 Master Plan, said Sam Darandari, director of Campus Planning and Construction. The Master Plan calls for rerouting East Drive to connect directly with Natural Bridge east of Woods Hall and closing the existing entrance at University Drive to motor vehicles, Darandari said. The University does not have the money or the land to reroute East Drive yet, so the change is not a done deal, Darandari said.

The traffic barrier keeping cars from making anything but a right turn into or out of Natural Bridge has been in place since August, Samples said.

Since then, motorists like Linda Landesman, a senior in education, have had to take circuitous routes to get to the new garage after driving down Natural Bridge from Interstate 170.

"I had to go completely around campus," Landesman said. "I see a lot of people turning left by Woods Hall and making a U-turn and coming back or going into the residential neighborhood and coming back."

Sarah Kalish, a sophomore biology student, said she found it so difficult to find her way to the new garage "that I just park way over there and have to walk."

The project took so long to complete because it had to be coordinated with the Department of Transportation and the village of Bel-Nor, Samples said.

Although Natural Bridge is a state-maintained highway, the University of Missouri-St. Louis took the initiative to put the traffic light in place and pay for it, Bruno said. The state will pay for maintaining the signal and has programmed it and, using fiber optic cable, will coordinate the light with Natural Bridge's intersections with Arlmont and University drives and Hanley Road.

The signal had to meet MoDOT standards, while Bel-Nor officials wanted the signal poles to be black rather than the standard galvanized steel. It took longer for the manufacturer to custom build the black poles, Samples said.