20th Street Mobility Improvements
The 20th Street Mobility Improvements Project will reconstruct 1.6 miles of 20th Street between Market Street and St. Louis Avenue. The multimodal project will consist of adding a separated bicycle path, reduced lane widths and traffic calming/safety measures, improved intersections, sidewalks, signals, LED lighting, street trees, a new asphalt surface, and other streetscape and landscape features. This project aims to provide a critical connection to two different sections of the Brickline Greenway, part of the Great Rivers Greenway’s growing network of greenway paths throughout the St. Louis metropolitan region. The project represents the importance of engineers and planners working together on infrastructure solutions that enhance communities.
Crucial to the project was feedback from the public, so CMT used a “triple touch” approach to early public engagement. First, the team sent out flyers and used social media promotions and a project website to engage the community before conducting initial walk and virtual audits of the project limits at the pre-concept level. Then, they hosted a pop-up event where people walked through a closed-off section of street and saw a mockup of initial 20% concept design options. CMT and their consultant partners, Trailnet and SWT Design, collectively walked people through the street, gathering over 225 project surveys. Finally, the team presented 40% preliminary plans at an open house-style meeting. The open house showcased how public suggestions from the pop-up survey were applied to the design, and it created an open forum for more public suggestions as the project moved into the final design.
Over 20 reviewing agencies were coordinated with during the fast-track design schedule. The project will connect to the Brickline Greenway at Market Street and the new St. Louis City SC soccer stadium.
The plan for the 20th Street Mobility Improvements Project included a robust public involvement process focused on increasing safety and mobility for all users, maintaining deteriorating infrastructure, increasing community connections and connecting to the Brickline Greenway. The plan moved beyond the typical involvement process by using field demonstrations to accurately convey impacts to the public.