St. Charles County Transportation Plan 2030 - East-West Gateway ...

study should be low, however, improvements could get expensive and complicated if they require
assistance or approval from adjacent property owners.
B-1.4. Minor Arterials
Rt. 94 from Rt. B to Rt. 370 is on the Illustrative list for improvement. Consideration should be
given to widening the road from two to four or five lanes instead of just a three-lane road.
Rt. N from I-64 to Rt. Z should be closely monitored to determine if the planned widening to three
lanes will be sufficient. This area is experiencing substantial growth and it is expected to continue
into the future. Although the forecasts do not indicate volumes in excess of capacity, they are quite
marginal. Depending on how fast growth continues, the three lane road proposed may not be
sufficient and a four or five lane facility may be needed.
Rt. Z from I-70 to Rt. N is another road that should be monitored closely by MoDOT. Growth in
this part of the county has been very high and could easily exceed forecasts. Should volumes
increase over the ones predicted, the road will exceed its capacity and need to be widened to four
or five lanes instead of just three.
B-1.5. Major Collectors
Rt. P is a road whose growth is unpredictable. Should development continue beyond expectations
the road will need widening over what is presently considered by MoDOT. Traffic volumes should
be closely monitored in future years.
A number of rural MoDOT roads have poor safety records. Although specific ones have not been
identified, the chapter on safety clearly pointed out that the severity rates on rural roads are normally
higher than on suburban and urban ones. Traffic volumes should be carefully monitored as well as
crash prone locations, those with poor horizontal and vertical alignment and limited sight distances.
Proposed new entrances or side roads should be carefully checked to insure that they are not placed
in locations that present additional hazards.
B-1.6. Future MoDOT Funding
Many of MoDOT’s projects described in this report can be expected to have reasonably high cost
and probably will be beyond their present funding capability. This is based on state-wide and
regional demands and priorities. Funds for new projects are quickly declining as a percent of total
funds compared to funds that are needed to simply maintain the existing system. MoDOT has been
examining ways of increasing present funding, but like many other DOTs and transportation
authorities, they have found new sources hard to acquire. Future funds will not be able to keep up
with future needs. Other means of funding transportation improvements may have to be considered
in order to meet the ever increasing demand for road and street travel.
B-2. County Roads
B-2.1. Principal Arterials
Most of the county’s principal arterial roads have been widened to four and five lanes. New traffic
signals and other equipment have been installed to upgrade existing facilities. However, in many
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