County Executive's Blog

Last month, I shared the first of a two-part series about the history and financing of our road system. Funding for road improvements and new construction has long been a challenge in St. Charles County and it continues to be a concern as we grow. There are more and more automobiles on the roads, which, logically, should increase the amount of fuel fees collected that go towards transportation funding. However, vehicles have become more fuel efficient and inflation has shrunk buying power, which means that the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has chosen to concentrate on maintaining roads rather than new construction. Fortunately, through the County’s voter-approved Transportation Sales Tax we have been able to work with MoDOT in making road improvement projects a reality – but as our growth continues, we cannot afford to maintain the state road and highway system.

To conclude this series, we’ll look at the rapid growth of our transportation infrastructure and the funding challenges it created, from the automobile boom of the early 1900s to the construction of our interstate system to the completion of the Page Extension in 2014.

PART II - THE COMING OF THE AUTOMOBILE

Pressure in the automobile industry had been building for some time in the early 1900s as automobile owners and businessmen pressured city, county and state governments for new street, road and bridge projects. Henry Machens opened the first automobile dealership in the county in 1906, and Herman Bruns opened the first dealership in St. Charles two years later. Pressure to build better roads came from car owners and special interest groups, including tire manufacturers and dealers, parts suppliers, oil companies, service station owners, land developers and road builders. Local merchants argued that roads benefited everyone and paid for themselves by increasing property tax revenues from businesses along the route.¹ St. Charles purchased road-building equipment, including a first-class steamroller and resurfacer, in 1908, and its streets were first oiled in 1911, after the city purchased a modern road oiling machine. Between 1916 and 1921, the number of automobiles in St. Charles increased from 200 to 2,108, causing one writer to suggest, “Several keen minded local businessmen give it as their opinion that St. Charles is facing an era of commercial opportunity due principally to the extensive road building projects, such as rarely given any city. Granitoid roadways will give merchandising enterprises here a patronage that could not be achieved in the old days. Troy, Warren and even St. Louis County towns will send increasing measures of their population to St. Charles to buy dry goods, men’s clothing, groceries and other commodities."² The city reconstructed the business portion of Main Street in 1922 and paved 20 of its 35 miles of streets by the end of the decade. 

St. Charles County also improved its roads and built new bridges to handle increased automobile traffic. As it had in 1836, the County Court cooperated with Lincoln County to build a bridge over the Cuivre River at Chain of Rocks in 1893. Because it had a much larger assessed valuation, St. Charles paid almost twice as much as Lincoln County. The county, which still relied on the overseers in 35 road districts to guarantee proper maintenance of the county’s existing roads, made significant repairs to the bridge in 1909. County voters passed a one-million-dollar bond issue for road improvements in 1920. While the proposal garnered only slightly more than a simple majority in St. Charles, overwhelming support in the rural areas of the county allowed the measure to gain the two-thirds majority needed for passage.³ Nevertheless, the old suspicion that internal improvements helped some more than others, remained and, as late as 1922, citizens Francis Hercules, Dietrich Ehlmann and August Amerein appeared before the County Court only after they had subscribed and paid in $50 to “ask the court to appropriate a like amount for the purpose of improving the so-called Jung’s Station Road."⁴

The state also responded to pressure to build modern highways. At the urging of the Automobile Club of St. Louis, Governor Hadley appointed a committee in 1911 to select the most practical route for an east-west cross-state highway. When the committee came through St. Charles, Governor Hadley made a short speech. He received a petition from the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), arguing that selection of the historic Boonslick and Santa Fe trails as the route for the highway, would, “preserve for future generations these interesting and historic thoroughfares and scenes of many noble and heroic deeds of our forefathers.” The 32-car caravan proceeded to St. Peters, where half drove the northern route along the old Salt River Road to Troy, while the others took the central route through Foristell to Warrenton. The Cosmos- Monitor reported, “The Parson’s car contained Messrs. Bloebaum, Olson, Ayres, Thompson and Jerromack.  The only mishap occurred in this car. In going over some rough road near O’Fallon, on a cross road, Dr. Ayres was jolted, and his head struck the top of the car and a scalp wound was inflicted. It was not serious."⁵ Little construction occurred before 1921, when the General Assembly passes the Centennial Road Law creating a four-member State Highway Commission and the positions of secretary, chief engineer and chief counsel, and the voters approved a $60 million bond issue for the construction of highways.

Commenting on the proposed St. Charles Rock Road, a concrete highway that cut in half the commuting time between St. Charles and St. Louis, M.J. Gauss predicted, “The new road may make St. Charles truly a suburb of St. Louis." ⁶ St. Charles Mayor Frank May and St. Louis Mayor Henry Kiel presided over a ceremony marking the opening of the new highway in 1921. Seven years later, the federal government announced that St. Charles County would be included in the St. Louis Metropolitan District for the first time in the 1930 census.

Construction began in 1921 on Missouri Highway 94, which started in West Alton and went through Orchard Farm, Boschertown, St. Charles, Harvester, Weldon Springs, Hamburg, Defiance, Matson and Augusta, before connecting to Highway 47 in Warren County. It proved an important transportation link with Alton, Illinois, to the north, and Warren and Franklin counties to the south. State expenditures on such highways averaged over $44 million per year in the period from 1923 through 1928, the year Highway 61, between Wentzville and the Lincoln County line, became a concrete highway. ⁷

Work began in 1923 on the east-west cross-state highway that had been under discussion since 1911. Having chosen the central route, the “Victory Highway” paralleled the route of the Wabash Railroad through St. Charles County. It was to be an important east-west route in the emerging national highway system, and became an important route in St. Charles county, linking St. Charles, St. Peters. O’Fallon, Wentzville and Foristell. Drive time between those communities was significantly reduced, though many accidents were reported on a stretch that became known as “Dead Man’s Curve” in the Cave Springs area. Concrete was poured to replace the bricks on Second Street from Clark to Clay streets in St. Charles. Motorists stopping in St. Charles on cross country trips used a campground that was set up in Blanchette Park. The highway was renamed U.S. 40 in 1927, and a modern tourist camp, with six cabins, opened along the route in O’Fallon, while the Bungalow Auto Camp opened on West Clay, across from Lindenwood College in St. Charles. The following year, the St. Charles Hotel opened at Second and Washington streets. To attract even more motorists to St. Charles, the Chamber of Commerce proposed in 1923 that the State Highway Commission purchase the privately-owned U.S. 40 Bridge. Agitation to reroute U.S. 40 to avoid the toll prompted an agreement by 1926 whereby the bridge was sold to St. Charles and St. Louis counties for $1.25 million, with the money to be recovered by continued tolls until 1931. Decisions by the State Highway Commission had become critical to the county’s future. ⁸

Citizen Calvin Castlio observed early in the 1920s that, while transportation and communication were improving for others, in rural St. Charles County, “Our roads were still just a sea of mud whenever it rained or the snow melted." ⁹ By 1930, farm groups and the State Highway Commission were promoting the building of additional “farm-to-market” roads to boost agriculture and the rural standard of living. That year the state made the Boonslick Road from St. Charles to the Marthasville Road a state farm-to-market road. The Marthasville Road as far as Hamburg was similarly designated in 1933. ¹⁰  

While the County Court had decided to hire manual laborers in 1932 to crush and spread the rock on Black Walnut Road, instead of spending money on a new portable rock crusher, county maintenance projects did little to create jobs since the county maintained its roads under the antiquated patronage system instituted a hundred years earlier. Male residents of the unincorporated areas of the county, between the ages of 21 and 60, still paid a poll tax at a rate set by the County Court. While most of the approximately 2,000 farmers in the county worked off the $2.40 annual tax at the rate of 20 cents per hour, in 1932 the County Court ordered, “Joseph Smith, a resident of Road District No. 26 of St. Charles County, Missouri, 44 years old, was duly examined by the County Court of said County on this day and was found to be entitled to exemption from road service on account of being unable to perform manual labor due to physical disability, and the Court thereupon exempted said Joseph Smith from working on the public roads of this state for the term of his natural life." ¹¹ Men worked under the supervision of 36 county road overseers, patronage appointments made by the court. ¹² After nearly 40 years out of power, the Democratic judges appointed Democrats to all appointed county positions in 1933.  Republicans returned the favor when they took the court back two years later. While the practice led to indignant charges of patronage in the local newspapers by both sides, the system continued. ¹³ Although the statute called for payment at 20 cents an hour, Presiding Judge Ohlms pointed out, “In most cases farmers work for the road overseers at 30 cents an hour and then remit cash to the treasurer. In this way, they get a little more money for their time.” ¹⁴ While St. Charles County had a Highway Department to maintain its roads by 1942, political patronage remained alive and well, as appointments to department jobs were for only a one-year period. ¹⁵ 

The St. Charles County court replaced the overseer system for the maintenance of county roads with a centralized system of full-time employees under the County Highway Engineer in 1946. ¹⁶ With all the growth in the county by 1960, County Highway Engineer Charles Ruff reported his department had to maintain an additional 100 miles of roadway and needed to rebuild almost all the county bridges. The state proposed a fuel tax increase from three to five cents in 1962. While the proposal almost doubled the revenue from the state for county roads, Ruff told the Journal that the additional money was, “a drop in the bucket” compared to the cost of necessary road and bridge repairs. ¹⁷ With more residents commuting to St. Louis County, and their local roads in need of improvement and repair, the voters of St. Charles County gave the measure a 63 percent majority, while the voters in St. Charles approved the tax by a 77 percent majority.  

Cooperation was not much better when county and municipal governments addressed local road improvements in St. Charles County. By May 1975, the County Road and Bridge levy of five cents per hundred dollars brought in only $1.5 million, far short of what was necessary to maintain the 500 miles of roads, 150 miles of subdivision streets, and 137 bridges in the county. The costs of road oil had increased from 16 to 45 cents per gallon, while asphalt had gone from $4.75 to $7.50 per ton since 1972. Gasoline had gone from 12.9 to 32.9 cents a gallon. To finance the local share of a federal program that paid 70 percent of the cost of road maintenance, the County court asked voters to approve a $10.3 million bond issue for road improvements in 1975. Growth Inc., a non-profit corporation composed of civic-minded business people and chaired by Charles Boswell, spent over $9,000 on a publicity campaign. 

As in the past, the rural areas of the county complained that the benefits would accrue to the developed areas of the county. The Journal responded, “Far from being an ‘east county project,’ the improvement ultimately will benefit the entire county from Foristell to Portage des Sioux to Augusta.” The editors called on the voters to approve the measure and repair, “roads and bridges built when Teddy Roosevelt was president.” The measure received strong support in St. Peters and the newer neighborhoods of St. Charles, where many of the new roads would have been built. When the bond issue failed, receiving only 46.3 percent while needing a two-thirds majority, the Banner-News explained:

The road bond issue appeared to be decided strictly along parochial lines, with the St. Peters area for the most part going for the proposal, while west, north and south county areas, along with St. Charles, said no. The proposal called for sale of the $10.3 million in bonds to finance numerous major projects. A majority of the projects were within the city limits of St. Peters. St. Charles, as the largest city in the county, was to receive about $2 million of the total in benefits, while obviously paying the larger share of taxes to retire the bonds.

Lamenting the meager 18 percent turnout, Presiding Judge Lee Schwendemann suggested, “The overall feeling in the county seems to be ‘I just don’t care.’” The residents of St. Peters responded to the crisis by approving a $3.5 million no-tax bond issue in 1978, which allowed the city to build Mid Rivers Mall Drive. After passage of a half-cent transportation tax in 1983, St. Peters initiated an even more ambitious road building program to relieve local traffic congestion. To get county workers to these jobs and others, St. Charles County elected officials worked with the State Highway Commission to build roads and bridges. When the federal government required regional organizations, made up of local officials, review applications for federal transportation funds, the East-West Gateway Council of Governments (East-West Gateway) was formed in 1965. After 1973, states were required to cooperate with Metropolitan Planning Organizations like East-West Gateway in planning local transportation projects that involved the use of federal funds.         

Efforts to pass a dedicated sales tax to fund county roads had been hampered by parochialism. To build support throughout the county, a task force identified five priority road projects: the preservation of a corridor for the extension of Page Avenue; the extension of Highway 115 to Highway 79; the extension of South Fifth Street to Friedens Road and South Highway 94; the improvement of Mexico Road; and construction of an outer belt road around Wentzville. Voters approved for 10 years a one-half cent sales tax by a vote of 8,083 to 5,707 in 1996.  The County Commission, after reviewing recommendations from mayors, appointed a Road Board. Chaired by former County Commissioner Tom Glosier, it recommended projects to the County Commission for approval.  By 1995, when Craig Tajkowski was appointed as the first full-time director of the Road Board, dozens of local road projects had been completed. Funds were used in 1998 to replace the 105-year-old bridge across the Cuivre River at Chain of Rocks. In 1989, with the assistance of the County Road Board, phase one of the outer belt highway around Wentzville was completed with County Road Board funds, giving the city opportunities for commercial development. The program was so successful that the voters approved Proposition R, reauthorizing the County’s Transportation Sales Tax for another 10 years through March 2006, and voters approved it through 2016 in 2005.  

In addition to their participation in Road Board projects, cities were actively improving surface transportation.  O’Fallon advanced $2.7 million to the State Highway Department to finish the first phase of Highway K, from I-70 to Feise Road, in 1986. A second phase, from Feise to Dardenne Creek, was completed eight months ahead of schedule in October 1995. The third phase, which widened the road to five lanes all the way to I-64, led to tremendous growth in that area. O’Fallon paid the $6.2 million construction cost for what will be the south outer road of a future extension of the Page Avenue Extension between Route K and the vicinity of Stump and Bates Roads. St. Charles used gaming revenue to rebuild several major streets including First Capitol Drive, Fifth Street, and portions of Elm Street. St. Peters continued to improve roads and streets from a dedicated fund.   

While better roads allowed St. Charles County to enjoy an extended period of population growth, it was reported in 1998 that St. Louis County had declined in population for the first time. In August 1958, Congressman Clarence Cannon was the speaker at the dedication of the Interstate Highway Bridge that crossed the Missouri River at St. Charles and put that city within 30 minutes of downtown St. Louis. A lot had changed in the county since the end of World War II. The previous year, an article entitled “Path of Progress for Metropolitan St. Louis,” announced: “Much of St. Charles County will soon be connected by expressways with the central parts of St. Louis City and County. In terms of travel time St. Charles will be brought close to the business centers of the metropolitan area. This will stimulate a county which up to now has grown very slowly.” The Interstate Highway Act brought new super-highways that accelerated demographic changes, while the automobile created revolutionary lifestyle changes, as families moved to the county seeking the “American dream.”      

The first stretch of the Interstate highway system, just west of the Blanchette Bridge in St. Charles County, opened in 1956, making it more convenient to live in St. Charles County and work in St. Louis County. With financing for the new bridge still uncertain, it appeared that a bond issue might be necessary to finance the project.  That problem was solved when Congress passed the Interstate Highway Act in 1956, providing for a 41,000-mile, (eventually a 42,500-mile) interstate highway system, with the federal government paying 90 percent of the cost. The bridge and its approaches opened in August 1958, after a ceremony featuring Congressman Clarence Cannon as the speaker. The western approach to the bridge was the first section in the country built under the Interstate Highway Act. What became I-70 reduced to 30 minutes the driving time from St. Charles to downtown St. Louis. ¹⁸

Increased growth in western St. Charles County necessitated the upgrade of Highway 40-61 to interstate standards. A new four-lane east-bound bridge over the Missouri River was opened in 1994, leaving the Daniel Boone Bridge to carry two westbound lanes. Design exceptions, approved by federal highway authorities in 1998, allowed the old bridge, which had been built with a passing lane in the middle in 1937, to carry three lanes of traffic in a westerly direction. St. Charles County loaned MoDOT $650,000 to fund a needs, location, and cost study for the construction of a new westbound bridge in 2002. The study revealed that average daily traffic volumes had increased sharply from 62,000 to 82,000 from 1999 to 2002 and recommended that a new bridge be constructed upstream of the current river structures to carry eastbound traffic, with the current eastbound companion bridge to carry westbound traffic, and the 1937 bridge to carry a service road. The Federal Highway Administration approved the Final Environmental Impact Statement and issued a Record of Decision, clearing the way for design of the $179 million project in 2004. 

The bridge problem was not so easily solved. When the Highway Commission announced in 1970 its intention to build a new bridge north of St. Charles that would skirt the city and connect with I-70 at Cave Springs, it was identified as a “high priority.” Therefore, commuters were dismayed the following year, when the Highway Commission indicated that a replacement for the Highway 67 Lewis Bridge at West Alton would be built before building another bridge at St. Charles. Voters approved an increase in the fuel tax to seven cents per gallon in 1972.  The Highway Commission approved construction of a second I-70 bridge, a Brown Road extension from St. Louis County, and gave “tentative location approval” to a Page Avenue extension into St. Charles County in 1973. Two years later, the commission announced the I-70 companion bridge would include extra lanes and a diamond interchange at a new overpass at Zumbehl Road. ¹⁹ However, these two projects were running into trouble by 1976, when the Page and Brown Road bridges were dropped from the active planning program of the State Highway Department for, “lack of funds and negative comments resulting from an ‘unprecedented action’ by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments in reviewing the proposed project.” With the rest of the region becoming more concerned about growth in St. Charles County, Presiding Judge Lee Schwendemann complained about being outvoted on these projects for St. Charles County. ²⁰ East-West Gateway actually recommended, “The number of lanes and access be reduced to control development." ²¹ An environmental group, commenting on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Brown Road Bridge extension, suggested that the bridge would lead to, “the growth of St. Charles city and county largely at the expense of St. Louis and St. Louis County." ²²

The Missouri River Bridges Committee, originally formed in 1973 to lobby for bridges, was reactivated in 1977 when the County Court passed a resolution calling for the completion of the Page Avenue Bridge before the Brown Road Bridge. Interests in St. Charles then formed a committee to lobby for Brown Road, pointing out it would help bring industrial, as well as residential development, to the county. They also pointed out that East-West Gateway estimated that Brown Road would take 26 percent of the traffic off I-70 by 1995, while a Page Bridge would eliminate only 17 percent. The County Court commissioned the Missouri River Bridges committee in 1978 to compile facts about the two bridges and the relative merits of each. The committee, chaired by Representative Douglas Boschert, raised $10,000 for the study that concluded Brown Road was preferable without endorsing it. Finally, in January 1979, a delegation from the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association (RCGA), including Mayor James Conway and St. Louis County Supervisor Gene McNary, endorsed a Page Avenue extension. Nevertheless, the next bridge built across the Missouri River in St. Charles County was a companion bridge to the Daniel Boone Bridge at Weldon Spring, which entered its initial design stage in 1978. Five years later, it was still unresolved as to whether Page or Brown Road Bridge should be built first. District Engineer Frank Kris explained that it would take up to ten years to build a bridge, but explained, “We can’t build both and we won’t build any until the differences are resolved.” ²³ A campaign to construct a Page Avenue Bridge was launched in 1984 by several members of the county’s legislative delegation. Representative Joe Ortwerth was among the legislative leaders who established the Page Avenue Bridge Committee. ²⁴   

Completion of the Page Avenue Bridge and the first leg of the Page Avenue Extension was the most significant accomplishment of the new millennium. After years of controversy, MoDOT dedicated and opened the Page Avenue Bridge, now named the Veterans Memorial Bridge, in December 2003. The tied arch Missouri River crossing provided relief to I-70, which was handling traffic in excess of 200,000 trips per day. With five lanes of traffic in each direction, the new bridge carried a separate dedicated bike path which, when completed in 2004, linked Creve Coeur Lake Park with the KATY Trail.

The county loaned MoDOT $800,000 in 2001 for the design work on the Page Avenue extension from Jungermann Road to Central School Road. With new overpasses at Heritage and Jung Station Road, Highway 94-South was widened to eight lanes, with two-lane, one-way service roads on each side. East-West Gateway approved $30 million in funding for Phase II of Page to a location west of Harvester Road, and construction began in 2007. In addition, Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond secured funding to extend the project to Woodstream Drive. The average commute time for St. Charles County residents had dropped to 24.7 minutes by 2009. However, MoDOT announced that by 2009 all funds would be used for maintenance and paying off bonds and no money would be available for funding the last legs of the extension. Rather than throw in the towel, the County continued to push the projects. MoDOT, the County and St. Peters agreed to a cost sharing arrangement to get Amendment Three funds to extend Page Avenue Extension to Central School Road. When federal funds became available in 2009, they were dedicated to this project and Amendment Three funds were used to fund the next section out to just beyond Mid-Rivers Mall Drive. ²⁵

Meanwhile, construction commenced in 2002 on the upgrade of Highway 40-61 from Chesterfield Parkway in St. Louis County to Route K in St. Charles County. A new overpass at the Missouri Research Park linked the research park campus with Highway 94 South at Siedentop Road. Construction was completed in 2002 on the lane additions to Highway 40-61 east of Highway 94. The following year MoDOT dedicated a new interchange at Route K to replace the signalized at-grade intersection. East-West Gateway approved $20 million to funding the upgrade of Highway 40-61 from Route K to Route DD (Winghaven Blvd.) and another $25 million for a similar upgrade on 40-61 from Lake Saint Louis Blvd. to I-70. MoDOT completed a $26 million at Route N that will someday serve as the western terminus of the Page Avenue Extension, and a westbound off-ramp at the Missouri Research Park utilizing a roundabout design. The final section of 40-61 was improved to interstate standards and the route became I-64 in 2009. 

The Interstate Highway Program was 50 years old in 2006, and it became necessary to improve and rebuild sections of I-70. The I-70 interchange at First Capitol Drive/Highway 94 South, one of the first built in the interstate system, was rebuilt as a single-point urban diamond design and completed in 2008. St. Charles County and St. Charles each advanced MoDOT one million dollars to design the $20 million project. While new bridges built since 1985 had eliminated the I-70 bottleneck at Earth City, as development moved west, a new one was created at Mid-Rivers Mall Drive. To relieve the congestion, MoDOT constructed auxiliary lanes along I-70, and the county and St. Peters built a connector road between 370 and Salt River Road. Wentzville spent 3.2 million dollars on a new interchange at Wentzville Parkway, replacing a two-lane overpass with a new six-lane bridge over I-70.  

Residents were happy to see Phase 2 of the Page Avenue Extension open in August 2009. The completion of Phase 2 opened Route 364 from Harvester Road to Mid Rivers Mall Drive. The $101 million project was paid for with federal, state and St. Charles County and St. Peters funds. The extension alleviated traffic, offered a quick trip to I-270 in St. Louis County, and provided residents with an alternate route during the Blanchette Bridge closure. 

County Executive Steve Ehlmann worked with Ed Hassinger, Chief Engineer for MoDOT; Grace Nichols, Outgoing Chair of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission; Gary Elmstead, Elmstead and Associates; Don Boehmer, Assistant Director of Administration - Intergovernmental Affairs for St. Charles County; and John Greifzu, Transportation Director for St. Charles County, to bring Phases 2 and 3 of the Page Extension to fruition. The County and its municipalities teamed together to fund $57 million for Phase 3, with MoDOT funding $61.2 million. St. Charles County’s half-percent Transportation Sales Tax, reauthorized by a 77 percent vote in August 2012, provided $29,150,000 for Phase 3. O’Fallon contributed $2.25 million to help with additional right-of-way costs, and Dardenne Prairie added $600,000 for improvements at Hanley Road. The County and its municipalities partnered with MoDOT to secure the federal grant funds necessary to complete the project.  

In February 2013, the Phase 3 design-build project was awarded to Page Constructors, a joint venture with Millstone Weber and Kolb Grading, with Parsons Transportation serving as the lead designer. On May 22, 2013, officials broke ground. The $118.2 million design-build roadway project included construction of a four-lane divided highway from Mid Rivers Mall Drive to I-64 in St. Charles County. The new Gutermuth Road Bridge over the Page Extension opened in Cottleville on August 2013. The Bryan Road Bridge opened in November 2013, the section between Route K and I-64 opened in early October 2014, and the final section opened Oct. 31, 2014. When completed, Phase 3 handled over 4,000 vehicles per hour, and reduced travel from Mid Rivers Mall Drive to I-64 to just seven minutes. Also, more than 70 percent of the jobs available in the St. Louis region are now within a 45-minute commute from St. Charles County.