The U.S. Department of Transportation is sending nearly $10 million to St. Louis to help fund a new portion of the planned Brickline Greenway in Midtown.
Great Rivers Greenway announced Wednesday it will use the $9.9 million to connect the Grand Metro stop to Laclede Avenue.
“This is a really big deal because the Brickline goes from Fairground Park to Tower Grove Park and Forest Park to the Gateway Arch, and so this bridge is the connector,” said Susan Trautman, chief executive officer for Great Rivers Greenway.
Although Armory STL and City Foundry are right next to each other, I-64 currently prevents a direct walk between the two attractions. City Foundry developer and New + Found CEO Steve Smith said this will also help people visit the Foundry without relying on a car.
“We had 2.3 million visitors to City Foundry last year, but you kind of have got to get there by car,” Smith said, adding, “right now to take public transit and get to City Foundry doesn't really work. This will make it work.”
This project will create a raised pedestrian pathway that will go above the eastbound lanes of I-64/40 and below the westbound lanes, creating a walkable route from the Grand Metro station, past the Armory and City Foundry, to St. Louis University’s campus. The new path will be accessible for people on foot, in wheelchairs, on bikes or in strollers. Trautman said that construction will start in 2027 and that the project should be complete in 2029.
The funding from the Biden administration is part of an initiative to invest in communities that were divided by infrastructure projects in the past, called the Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Program. The highways built in the middle of the 20th century often displaced communities of color and cut neighborhoods off from jobs, schools and businesses. Trautman said that’s exactly what happened in Midtown, where developers demolished the majority-Black Mill Creek Valley neighborhood in the name of “urban renewal” in the late 1950s.
“So what this does is now it allows the neighborhoods to the north of I-64 to connect to the neighborhoods to the south,” Trautman said.
This St. Louis project is one of more than 130 projects across the country that the Department of Transportation announced Wednesday will receive $3.3 billion in total.
“While the purpose of transportation is to connect, in too many communities past infrastructure decisions have served instead to divide,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement. “Now the Biden-Harris administration is acting to fix that.”
The $9.9 million from the federal government will cover half of the project cost, according to Great Rivers Greenway. The rest will be paid for by local tax dollars and funding from private donors, including the Berges Family Foundation.
The Brickline Greenway project is a plan to create a pedestrian connection running east to west between Forest Park and the Gateway Arch National Park, and north to south between Fairground Park and Tower Grove Park. Two small sections have been constructed so far, and Trautman said the next priorities will be connections between CityPark soccer stadium and Harris-Stowe State University, then between Fairground Park and the Foundry, and then the soccer stadium and the Arch.
“The big-picture vision is for people to have a different experience getting around St. Louis,” Trautman said. “Not only will the Greenway connect all of our major destinations and parks, it connects our medical and educational institutions like SLU and Wash U. There's just literally hundreds of destinations along the Brickline.”
Smith said his organization has partnered with Great Rivers Greenway to support the Brickline project and has invested in a structural foundation to be ready for this trail connection. Smith said he hopes this type of project will make St. Louis more attractive to young people.
“I think this also is something that makes St. Louis more competitive as we compete for the young talent of the future,” Smith said. “And I think that's really important for everyone in this region.”
