St. Louis Regional Freightway’s 2025 List of Priority Projects Tops $8B
Date Posted: July 30, 2024
Posted In: Organizations, Projects,
From RiverBender: The 2025 Priority Projects List for the St. Louis bi-state region includes 27 projects that represent a total investment of more than $8 billion, according to the St. Louis Regional Freightway. As of May 2024, more than $500 million in projects on the list had been completed and nearly $2.3 billion in additional projects had been fully funded, with many of those under construction or soon to be.
Those numbers, which continue to grow year over year, underscore the tremendous commitment to improving freight infrastructure in the bi-state St. Louis region by securing funding and advancing major projects through the development pipeline. The Priority Projects List features the top freight infrastructure funding needs for eastern Missouri and southwestern Illinois. The Priority Projects List was released May 15, 2024, during the annual Freight Summit presented by the St. Louis Regional Freightway as part of FreightWeekSTL 2024.
The Priority Projects are identified by the St. Louis Regional Freightway’s Freight Development Committee. On that committee are representatives from the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), East-West Gateway Council of Governments, all modes of transportation (river, roads, rails and runways), the manufacturing and logistics industries, and academia.
The committee members work through a process that has been nationally recognized for its effectiveness. Completed priority freight infrastructure projects include the $222 million replacement of the Merchants Bridge, a vital rail link connecting Missouri and Illinois near downtown St. Louis.
It had been the region’s highest priority infrastructure project since 2016. A $278 million project to improve Interstate 270 (I-270) from James S. McDonnell Boulevard to Bellefontaine Road also wrapped up in 2023, while several smaller projects round out the completed projects list.
Kirk Brown, Region Five Engineer for IDOT, said some of the most significant projects on the list that IDOT is advancing, range from the $496 million Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Mississippi River and the nearby Illinois Route 111 Interchange to the Illinois Route 3 Connector in Fairmont City/East St. Louis.