ST. LOUIS • Looking to catch a quick espresso on the riverfront? A well-lit evening jog past the Gateway Arch? A beer overlooking the Mississippi River?
The $33 million redesign of the river road, Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard, has taken shape. It features walkways made of interlocking pavers, curving stone benches, stainless-steel guardrails, rows of bald cypress trees, a 10-foot-wide, two-way bike path, space for food carts and table seating — and light towers that lean over it all.
The newest plans from Great Rivers Greenway, the tax-funded trails district overhauling the stretch of road and walkway under the Arch, were unveiled at a community meeting Tuesday night at the America’s Center downtown.
Several of the local agencies helping with the $380 million overhaul of the Arch grounds spoke on the progress of their projects — from trails through the new gardens to the construction of the “lid” and park over Interstate 70, set to start this summer.
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But the news of the night came from the river road project, which runs 1½ miles under the Arch, from Chouteau Avenue to Biddle Street. Many of the plans sketched out months ago are now clear.
“We’re pretty far into this thing,” said Janet Wilding, Great Rivers Greenway’s director of administration.
Construction is scheduled to start next spring and take about a year-and-a-half.
The overhaul will first raise Leonor K. Sullivan by 2½ feet, giving users 87 more days out of the flood plain each year on average, engineers said.
Towering light poles will then rise from the wall. Now, said Wilding, some sections of the riverfront are “dark, dark” and some are “so bright you could land a plane.” The new lights will lean heavily toward the Arch, spreading light evenly across the road, path and cobblestone, too.
Two rows of bald cypress trees will run the length of the road, one strip on each side. The cypress trees can handle periodic floods, Wilding said. They’ll be planted in beds that stretch out underground to give the tree roots more room.
“There’s going to be a lot more greenery down there than people are used to seeing,” Wilding said.
There’s also going to be more space.
With help from St. Louis Streets Director Todd Waelterman, engineers found more room between the Arch and the historic cobblestone on the riverfront. So they pushed the flood wall east, giving pedestrians extra pathway.
And hundreds of tiny details are being worked out.
Pavers, at first designed as “tumbled” with rounded edges, are now square-edged, to give wheelchairs easier rolling. The riverfront cobblestone, protected by its historic status, will be relocated if disturbed by construction. And electrical outlets, necessary for those coffee carts and beer stands, will be mounted high on the light posts.
So if flooding hits, food carts can unplug, move, and plug back in later.
Federal transportation funds pay for the bulk of the project, about $19 million. Great Rivers is contributing $10 million more. The final $4 million comes from private donations for the Arch redevelopment.
“It’s exciting,” said Beth Bonebrake, 23, of south St. Louis. She grew up here, and remembers visiting the Arch through grade school. But she won’t go down to the riverfront at night by herself now. “Adding the extra light is good,” she said.
Her friend, Dan DeWeese, 23, of south St. Louis County, said he was especially interested in the new connections, from downtown to the Arch, and along the riverfront trail. DeWeese said he cycles the pathway, and has ridden from the south to the Arch, and from the north to the Arch. “But I’ve never actually been able to ride from the south to the north.”
The meeting lasted about an hour and a half, and included several other project updates:
• Construction will start, as planned, on the “lid” and park over Interstate 70 this summer, connecting Market Street directly to the Arch grounds, said engineers from the Missouri Department of Transportation.
• Plans for the Museum of Westward Expansion, under the Arch, are progressing.
Haley Sharpe Design, the British firm charged with creating the new museum, presented renderings of new exhibits — rebuilding of the city after the fire of 1849, designing and erecting the Arch, and the Old Courthouse architecture, for instance.
• And a “circulation loop” is being drafted to encircle the park and link to the riverfront, said representatives from CityArchRiver, the nonprofit group raising private money and coordinating much of the construction.
As a whole, the elements of the Arch grounds renovation have largely been designed, said CityArchRiver Executive Director Maggie Hales. Those designs, she said, are now beginning to be fine-tuned.
Fundraising continues, Hales said. CityArchRiver has $59 million in the bank or in written commitments, and expects to have $100 million by the end of April.
The 3/16-cent sales tax passed by voters in St. Louis and St. Louis County earlier this month will send an additional $9 million a year to the Arch project.
Project leaders anticipate most of that will go toward a $90 million bond measure.
David Hunn covers taxpayer spending on regional cultural institutions. Follow him on Twitter @davidhunn.
