St. Louis Set to Study Removal of Elevated I-70

Removing an Interstate highway is necessarily a long and deliberate process, but events have quickly conspired in St. Louis to push the proposed conversion of 1-mile of I-70 separating the city from its historic riverfront and iconic Arch from urbanist dream to planning possibility. Friday, the city's development corporation released its "Request for Proposals for Downtown Multimodal Access Study". The bland-titled 22-page document contains the most significant step forward in the effort convert the Interstate to an urban boulevard:

In particular, address the potential removal of the elevated sections of I-70 from north of Pine St. to O’Fallon St, to determine feasibility and traffic impacts should the elevated sections be completely removed, brought to grade, and what various alternatives might be considered for this scenario to occur long-term.

{the Interstate conversion study would focus on elevated I-70 just north of the Arch, yellow - vacant or surface parking lots, purple - existing structures, orange - new developable land, the Arch grounds appear in the lower right corner}