Delor Ave Bridge Reopened Six Weeks After Collapse of Railing

It was six weeks ago, on March 1st, that a portion of the sidewalk and guardrail of the Delor Ave bridge over I-55 crashed down onto the roadway, blocking all four lanes of northbound traffic (see post). This past afternoon the barricades were removed and the bridge was reopened to traffic (vehicular and pedestrian).

The light gray portion of railing above is new to replace that which had collapsed. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured when the concrete fell to the interstate below.

From above you can see the new concrete sidewalk and railing. I’m glad the bridge is reopened as this is my direct route from my home to my office. I’ll drive or scooter across the bridge but you won’t catch me walking on that sidewalk!

The remainder of the bridge has small bits of new concrete in places as well as indicators where new steel was set to secure the balance of the sidewalk and railing. Apparently this design allowed water to get into the construction and rust steel that could not be inspected. A large number of other bridges along I-55 and some along I-44 use the same design. All are to be retrofitted to ensure the same does not happen again.

As I indicated last month, I am concerned about the amount of infrastructure we as taxpayers have to pay for. While existing infrastructure rusts we continue to build more and more, often on the outer edges of region. When we do focus on existing infrastructure, it is costly replacement projects such as the “New I-64“.

Rumor: Staff Positions for New President of the Board of Aldermen

Lewis Reed will be sworn in soon as the city’s next President of the Board of Aldermen, replacing Jim Shrewsbury in that role. That much we all know. What we have not yet heard is whom he will hire to the three staff positions to be filled within his office, including Chief of Staff.

One widespread rumor was 15th Ward Alderman Jennifer Florida for Chief of Staff but I’m hearing Florida will not get that job. However, I’m hearing Florida will take the second position as “Assistant to the President”, a job that pays more than current role of Alderman. Fifth Ward Alderman April Ford-Griffin is the name heard most often for Reed’s Chief of Staff. Both were early supporters of Reed’s candidacy.

If this rumor is true, and we will know within a week, that will leave two aldermanic seats open. The 5th ward is where large-scale land speculation is going on (aka Blairmont) and the 15th Ward had the long battle last year over a proposed McDonald’s. Both Florida and Ford-Griffin have been targets of unsuccessful recall attempts.

It Ain’t Easy Being Green

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is getting criticized by environmentalists for trying to bring solar, geothermal and nuclear power from other areas to LA. The rub is the impact of an 85-mile corridor of high power lines going through forests and other areas.

Many preservation and community groups have condemned the mayor for a plan that they say would destroy priceless vistas, natural areas and wildlife corridors. Justin Augustine of the Center for Biological Diversity recently wrote Villaraigosa a letter saying that not only was such energy consumption not ‘green,’ but unacceptable under any name. The ends cannot justify the means, he said.

Further, the anger over the proposed route underscores challenges nationwide over how to ship wind, sun and steam power from remote rural reaches to booming urban centers. (Source w/links to LA Times and other sites)

Wow, tough crowd.

Sunday the CBS News program 60 Minutes had a feature on the return of nuclear plants as a source of green energy — the power plants do not create the greenhouse gases that we get from coal-fired plants. Much of France is powered by nuclear energy. They currently recycle spent rods rather than bury them as we’ve done in the US for decades. The downside is the recycling creates plutonium which can be used for bomb making. Apparently the US Government is researching new methods of recycling the waste without creating plutonium as a by-product. We may well see more nuclear power plants in our future.

Meanwhile back in St. Louis, the Ameren “fact sheet” shows a major reliance on coal & natural gas. Out of a capacity of 16,200 megawatts (mw) only 1,190mw of that is from their single nuclear plant located in Callaway County, MO. Three hydroelectric plants, including the non-functioning Taum Sauk, total 800mw. The remaining 87% of their capacity relies on coal or natural gas. Not exactly green. What are the alternatives for Missouri and Illinois customers of Ameren?

Well, one option is net metering. Per Sustainablog, the Missouri Senate is considering such a bill:

Missouri is one of a handful of states that don’t have a net metering law. In other words, if you install a grid-tied renewable system on your home or business, utilities in the state are not required to credit your electric bill at the retail rate for excess energy produced — the current system that the state government calls net metering only requires utilities to credit energy-producing customers at the avoided-cost rate. That could change as early as this year, as Missouri Senate bill 674, the Easy Connection act, has been introduced, and is now under consideration by the Senate’s Commerce, Energy and Environment committee.

One thing is certain, I don’t hear our regional elected officials speaking on the topic of future energy sources. The LA Mayor may be getting a bad rap over his proposal but at least he is looking for solutions beyond his term in office.

Zoning Error Puts Collinsville IL in Middle of Dispute

Mistakes happen, but they are often costly. The City of Collinsville IL (St. Louis Metro East) is realizing as much. From the Belleville News-Democrat:

The city is facing threats of lawsuits from a new business and from its potential neighbors thanks to an error in a zoning map.

According to City Manager Bob Knabel, the developer sought zoning information about 102 Gaylord Drive before buying it, and was told that it was commercial. The developer later was issued a building permit.

The problem: The zoning map was in error, and the building was in a residential zone.

Now the residents of Gaylord Drive are asking the City Council to stop the construction of a beauty salon in the middle of their residential street.

Oh, not good. No matter which way the city goes they will have a lawsuit on their hands. But the above description of the “middle of their residential street” is not really accurate.

Per Google Maps (and Mapquest) the site in question is on a corner of Gaylord Drive (small street to the left) and a larger arterial street, Vandalia (diagonal upper right to bottom left). As you can see, Vandalia St is lined with suburban commercial establishments in both directions. Residential housing, such as those on Gaylord, also abut Vandalia while some even front on this street. Quite the delima.

The first question I have is if the developer, if they knew it was residentially zoned, could have pursueded the city to rezone the property before purchasing the land? That is, could they have taken out an option and tried to rezone to commercial. Neighbors would have objected but if Collinsville is anything like the rest of the region they would have jumped at the chance to increase their tax base with more commercial property.

The bigger issue is that Vandalia St looks like a hodge podge of pure vanilla suburban development — zero thought as to creating a cohesive streetscape. No wonder the residents object to the end of their street potentially contributing to this nothingness. Vandalia St. is a typical 4-lane arterial with a center turn lane and generic buildings on each side. Both the residential areas and Vandalia St. lack sidewalks so nobody sees the point in walking down the block to one of the nearby establishments.

The developer will likely prevail in court regardless of which side the city takes.

New Orleans Group Fighting Big Box Development like Loughborough Commons

Citizens in New Orleans are fighting to retain that city’s character as generic suburban developers seek to bring “cookie-cutter” projects to their city. By way of example, the website Think New Orleans used an image of just such a project — Loughborough Commons. Yes, St. Louis is providing yet another example of what others are trying to avoid — even in the wake of a major natural disaster.

Click here to see the full post.

I suppose we should be thanking Ald. Matt Villa for helping bring this mostly tree-less “project” to St. Louis. A project that doesn’t connect to numerous adjacent streets and still doesn’t welcome pedestrians. We are now at over seven months since the Schnuck’s grocery store opened and still no federally mandated ADA-compliant accessible route is in place. Seven months! Even a simple accessible route between the Schnuck’s and Lowe’s store is not in place, again a violation of federal civil rights law. Clearly the developers have little regard for the civil rights of those not in cars.

More power to the good folks in New Orleans fighting to keep St. Louis-style big box development out of their urban city.