Lower Speed Limit Set

Signs establishing a lower speed limit have been posted heading south from the St. Clair city limits on Highway 47 to just south of Angels Crossing Drive. The same speed reduction is in effect on the same stretch of road heading north out of town on the highway.

City Administrator Rick Childers said the Missouri Department of Transportation erected the signs late Wednesday afternoon.

The 45 mph signs make that speed limit official and enforceable after the St. Clair Board of Aldermen last month passed an ordinance that lowered the driving speed. The city was asked by MoDOT to reduce the speed from 55 mph.

The city limits on the north side of St. Clair begin between just north of Airport and Happy Sac roads.

The speed reduction on Highway 47 is tied with the Interstate 44 North Outer Road improvement project currently under way on that end of the city. When finished, a traffic signal will be in place at Highway 47 near Angels Crossing Drive just north of Burger King where the new outer road will intersect.

Childers said the reduced speed limit is needed for safety reasons.

The speed limit on Highway 47 is 40 mph from just north of Burger King to the traffic signal at North Commercial Avenue and Main Street. The new ordinance re-establishes that speed.

The realignment and improvement plan has MoDOT relocating the North Outer Road at Highway 47 about 1,300 feet to the north. The realignment will follow Peterson Road and intersect with Highway 47 just south of Angels Crossing Drive. Access management modifications will be made to Highway 47, and new traffic signals will be installed at the relocated North Outer Road as well as at the two I-44 intersection ramps.

Upon completion, there will be no left-hand turn access from the current east side of North Outer Road onto Highway 47. Motorists who wish to drive into St. Clair from there will have to follow the new road layout to the traffic signal near Angels Crossing.

Across Highway 47, a section of the west side of North Outer Road will be eliminated, and the new road will connect to Miller Drive.

The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.