Arch Grounds Public Scoping Comments Support Study of I-70 to Boulevard Conversion

The incremental process that is the Arch grounds revitalization efforts continues to inch forward, largely out of the limelight. The latest public step was a required scoping period for the National Park Service (NPS) environmental assessment (EA). It represented one of the few opportunities, and the first in many months, for the public to weigh in on the process.

The NPS received 123 pieces of correspondence and parsed them into comments. In total, 119 comments supported the further study of transforming current I-70 from the Poplar Street Bridge to the new Mississippi River Bridge into an urban boulevard. When the public has had a chance to participate, the message has been clear. That messages is not that the I-70 conversion should be completed by October 2015, the City+Arch+River project deadline, or that the ongoing project should grind to a halt. The public is simply asking for the option to receive full consideration, to be studied. As asked in the story below, will anyone listen?