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| Study Background The Northside-Southside Major Transit Improvements Study is the next step toward implementing MetroLink and other transit improvements in the City of St. Louis. In 2000, East-West Gateway Council of Governments and its partners, Metro and the Missouri Department of Transportation, completed multi-modal planning studies, known as Major Transportation Investment Analyses (MTIAs), that identified transportation problems and recommended solutions. Two of the three corridors that were studied during the MTIAs were Northside and Southside. The MTIAs resulted in locally preferred alternatives being selected for each corridor that included proposed MetroLink extensions and other major transit improvements. The Northside-Southside Study will build upon the MTIAs’ recommendations. For the Northside corridor, the preferred transit alternative was a MetroLink line running from downtown St. Louis north by using rights-of-way along several streets including 14th Street, Natural Bridge Avenue, and West Florissant Avenue into North St. Louis County. Two potential preferred alternatives were selected for the Southside corridor. One was a MetroLink extension from downtown St. Louis running south using rights-of-way within 14th Street, Chouteau Avenue, the Union Pacific Railroad track and along I-55. The other possible design was a Bus Rapid Transit system from downtown south via Market Street, Grand Boulevard, to rights-of-way alongside the Union Pacific Railroad track and Loughborough Avenue, then via I-55 to South St. Louis County. The study area maps include the routes recommended during the MTIAs. The Northside-Southside Study will reexamine and refine the locally preferred alternatives from the MTIAs by performing conceptual engineering and environmental analysis. East-West Gateway and its partners have hired a consulting team, led by HNTB, to conduct the study. The study team will follow National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements as well as other federal and state regulations. The result will be locally preferred alternatives that are developed to a 10% level of engineering design. The final work product will include information on the costs and benefits of each alternative, station locations and design, economic development opportunities and environmental impacts. Funding for the Northside-Southside Study is made possible from the sale of Transportation Development Tax Credits from the State of Missouri. These credits can only be applied to transportation improvements in areas defined as Distressed Communities under Missouri law, such as the City of St. Louis. As such, only portions of the Northside and Southside corridors that were studied during the MTIAs will be part of the Northside-Southside Study. |
Timeline To learn more about the study process and when key milestones will occur, click timeline.
Maps Click maps to see the complete Northside-Southside study area. Study Team East-West Gateway Council of Governments and its partners has hired a consulting team to conduct the Northside-Southside Study. The following companies are leading the study:
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