Feds 'Stimulus' Money Pays For New Roads In West County

Trips from West County to Page Avenue and the Maryland Heights Expressway should go more smoothly after July 1.

That’s when the new Route 141, between Ladue Road and Olive Boulevard, and the Page-Olive Connector, between Olive and the Maryland Heights Expressway, are scheduled for completion. Work is on track for both.

The , the largest in St. Louis County history. Federal stimulus funds will cover $20 million of that amount. The remainder is from St. Louis County and the City of Maryland Heights.

The section from Ladue Road to Olive has a total cost of $80 million, which includes $35 million to purchase the right-of-way to build. It’s being funded using stimulus money.

The new highways, located a couple miles west of Interstate 270, will take some north-south traffic, especially to St. Charles County via the Page extension. (The Page extension is also known as Route 364.)

The southern section, Route 141, is a MoDOT project. The Page-Olive Connector, to the north, is a St. Louis County Department of Highways and Traffic job. The two are coordinating efforts and should be finished at about the same time.

It's not decided whether the Page-Olive Connector will be eventually designated as Route 141.

“We’ll probably be done a little ahead of the state, but it just as easily could have been the other way around,” said David Wrone, spokesman for the county roads department.

MoDOT Resident Engineer Jesse Jonas said as long as the weather holds, the whole project should be flowing with traffic on July 1.

"Then we’ll be doing little stuff here and there, but by and large, the roads will be open," he said. "The whole highway—the whole way up (to Route 364)—will be in use." 

MoDOT is doing some removal of the bypass near Olive; working on bridge construction at Ladue Road; and working on the relocation of the Ladue Road east of Woodsmill Road.

Three bridges are being built for the Page-Olive Connector.