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

The Council’s long range plan discusses safety of travel in the region and shows tables that allow
for comparisons of the eight counties. Problems associated with roads and drivers are fully
discussed and suggestions are made for improvements. In MoDOT’s Blueprint for Safer Roadways,
a very comprehensive examination of roads and drivers is made. This document covers much of the
items noted above. Both these reports make suggestion for reducing crashes and their severity
including the four “E’s,” Enforcement, Engineering, Education, and Emergency Deployment. All
these items and the referenced material noted is considered an important part of this chapter and this
report.
In summary, it appears the number of crashes, their severity, and crash rates on roads in St. Charles
County is slightly higher than in other parts of the region and the state. The roads that handle the
highest volumes and have the most crashes are maintained by MoDOT. Yet, many such as I-70, do
not have high crash rates and are considered quite safe for the volume of traffic that they carry. It
may be that the County ranks higher than the region or state as a result of its increased population
and fast growth. Road and street improvements, except for some major high cost MoDOT projects,
seem to have kept up with this growth, although the County’s Ten year Plan contains a large number
of yet to be completed projects. It would seem that some combinations of the above factors are the
reason for the higher crash rates.
C. Railroad Safety
Railroad safety has been considered for two categories of railroad traffic in the County. The first
is the safety of railroad crossings with roads and the second is safety on the railroad lines
themselves. For road crossings, they involve at-grade crossings of roads maintained by MoDOT,
the County, and some cities. A number of crossings are grade separated by bridges (such as the
recently completed T.R. Hughes bridge over the Norfolk Southern) and with rare exception, have
no crash related experiences. MoDOT’s Multi modal Division gathers crash data for all railroad
crossings and all injuries and deaths on railroad lines and has provided the data for this section. In
addition, they monitor and approve requests for state funding for railroad crossing improvements.
On the railroad lines there are incidents that involve trains and railroad employees or trains with
pedestrians. Train and pedestrian incidents, in addition to crossing incidents, are reported by the
railroads to MoDOT and are included in MoDOT’s data.
In St. Charles County there are two railroads with current traffic over railroad lines, the BNSF and
the Norfolk Southern. The BNSF runs from West Alton west along the northern part of the County
close to the Mississippi River and then north into Lincoln County. It has 26 public crossings with
state and county roads and 34 private crossings in close proximity to the river. There are also three
grade separations. It has experienced no crashes in the last four years at these crossings. The
Norfolk Southern runs just north of I-70, from the Missouri River west to Wentzville, where it
crosses over I-70 and runs into Warren County. It has 34 public at-grade crossings and 21 private
crossings and has experienced three crashes during the last four years, no fatalities but two injuries.
There are also 14 grade separations.
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