WEST ALTON, MO. – Transportation officials in Missouri have started a series of changes along U.S. Route 67 that would remove the corridor’s last traffic signal between Interstate 270 and Alton, Illinois, and replace several at-grade intersection movements with J-turns in an effort to reduce crashes.
The Missouri Department of Transportation is presenting a preliminary plan to improve existing at-grade intersections along Route 67 at Cinder Road, Red School Road, Route 94/Richard Drive, and St. Charles Street. The proposal follows research conducted during a road safety audit, which found that “accommodating crossing movements via J-turns and modifying how motorists make left-turns onto Route 67 from side streets are considered the most cost-effective solutions that will function well into the future.”
Under the proposed design, MoDOT would install J-turns south of Cinder Road and north of Route 94/Richard Drive, add an offset left-turn lane from northbound U.S. 67 to St. Charles Street, and include crossovers for emergency and authorized vehicles only north of Cinder Road and north of Richard Drive.
The J-turn is an alternative to traditional roadway intersections on a four-lane highway. Instead of motorists crossing fast-moving lanes of traffic to get to the opposing lanes, drivers at a J-turn intersection turn right in the same direction of traffic, merge into the left lane, and then make a U-turn in the direction they intend to travel.
The proposed improvements include eliminating the existing signal and all median crossovers between northbound and southbound U.S. 67 and constructing J-turns, improving or adding acceleration and deceleration lanes at cross streets, realigning the curve along southbound U.S. 67 just north of the Route 94 intersection, and making drainage, signing, lighting, and guardrail improvements along the corridor.
MoDOT said its historical experience with J-turns anticipates the percentage of fatal and serious injury crashes would be reduced by approximately 80%, with total crashes along the corridor reduced by 25%. The agency also said implementing the proposed J-turns with an offset left from northbound U.S. 67 to St. Charles Street would reduce the number of conflict points by 60% along the corridor.
MoDOT said the changes are intended to “limit collision opportunities and, most typically, the severity of such collisions.” It said the offset left turn to St. Charles Street “specifically considers the balance of safety, operations, and user convenience in reducing travel time,” noting that the corridor is used by farmers and other large trucks and vehicles in the West Alton area.
MoDOT said the traffic signal at Route 94/Richard Drive is being removed and not replaced because it is “the only remaining signalized intersection in the nine-mile corridor between I-270 and Alton, Illinois,” and because it “is experiencing a higher than anticipated number of crashes.”
The signalized intersection was evaluated early in the project as part of the road safety audit, MoDOT said, and “non-compliance at the signalized intersection, poor driver perceptions and driver behaviors have resulted in several chronic safety issues at this intersection.”
