Over the past year, Manchester Road has seemed to be a huge construction zone. As bothered as some drivers may have been with the amount of work being done, the entire project has a purpose: to reinvigorate one of West County’s most important thoroughfares.

Karen Yeomans, MoDOT district design engineer, has overseen the initiative known as the Manchester Road Great Streets Project. Planning for the project began with a study commissioned by East West Gateway Council of Governments, who oversees how federal transportation funds are spent in St. Louis.

“A number of businesses along Manchester had either moved out of the area or had gone out of business,” Yeomans said. “Many thought it was difficult to find businesses because addresses were hard to find and the traffic congestion. There are a lot of driveways and it is hard to get from one business to another. And the corridor was starting to appear rundown. Sidewalks were spotty, which did not encourage people to walk along the corridor.”

In order to revitalize the area, MoDOT has overseen various changes to Manchester road. These changes are hoped to improve the road’s traffic and aesthetics.
“These include connecting sidewalks where possible, encouraging cross access between businesses, planning for ‘backage’ roads off of Manchester to take traffic off the road between businesses, and medians that provide for left turns at designated locations,” Yeomans said.

Other additions to Manchester Road will include lighted street signs, painted signals, and address bollards.

Some of the medians were initially constructed too long and had to be rebuilt to lengthen the left turn lanes.

“Some of this was due to redevelopment of commercial properties that took place after we started construction. The cost to rebuild those turn lanes was minimal and was covered by cost savings in other areas of the project,” Yeomans said.

Ronald Bailey, store manager at the AutoZone in Ellisville, said residents have complained about not being able to enter the parking lot.

“They can’t turn into the store safely, and it’s just a big aggravation to go behind the store to turn around,” Bailey said.

Yeomans said the only issue faced was with the manhole covers, which rose above the ground too high.

“For the resurfacing of the pavement, we remove the top three or four inches of asphalt and the put it back in two lifts,” Yeomans said. “We had put in the first lift, but with all the rain this summer, it took a while to get the last lift put down.”

Frannie Haller, junior, faced the manholes while driving.

“Whenever I would drive, people would swerve around the manholes and I would just go over it,” Haller said. “I’m pretty sure my tires got ruined from that.”

This problem has since been corrected. Construction on the Great Streets Project is to be over by the end of the year.