The City of St. Louis, Saint Louis University and Metro Transit St. Louis are all going to be partaking in the Grand Bridge reconstruction project scheduled to initiate early next year.
With a MetroLink station located underneath the Grand Bridge, service will be affected.
“Trains will continue through the station but there will be no passenger access at the Grand Bridge stop,” Senior Project Manager for Metro Gerald Wittenauer said.
MetroLink trains will still be able to travel along its current route uninterrupted, but patrons will have to find alternate stations to access the train.
Metro will work on its portion of the Grand Bridge reconstruction project simultaneously with the City of St. Louis.
“Metro’s work is intended to run concurrently with that of the City, from approximately January 2011 to mid-2012,” Wittenauer stated.
The Metro project will include the removal and replacement of the existing elevators and stairs from the platform, expressed Wittenauer. This reconstruction will provide for enhancement of “operational safety for train arrivals” and will permit security personnel to better monitor the area.
Also, a Park-and-Ride area for about 70 cars will be constructed, and access points to the Grand station will be moved as well.
Metro will attempt to make efforts to accommodate any inconveniences to its constituents by altering its bus service. No bus service will be able to run on Grand Bridge, therefore, a new north-south crossing will be established at different points.
“Now that I’m an upperclassman, I have more friends with cars, but I relied on Grand Station to get everywhere, including the airport to go home for breaks,” Hannah Beaty, junior, said.
“It would help if SLU extended the shuttle route to include other Metro stations in its stops.”
The MetroLink will still be accessible at the Union Station and Central West End stops, but students will need to find alternate modes of transportation to the stations.
“Currently, SLU does not have plans to run the shuttles to the Central West End,” Thomas West, Manager of Mail Services, Distribution and Transportation, stated.