Bayless School Board Approves Road Construction to Ease Congestion

At a budget workshop last Saturday morning the Bayless Board of Education approved the contracts on a road construction project connecting Weber Road to Hildesheim Avenue with a loop drive running behind and .

When the project is completed, a single-lane, one-way drive will go from Hieldesheim Avenue behind the schools, where there is currently a grassy field. It will connect to Weber Road via the parking lot and drop-off loop in front of Bayless Elementary.

The project is intended to relieve congestion on Weber Road and the surrounding side streets in the morning and afternoons when parents drop off and pick up their children at the four Bayless district schools.

“We’ve been working on it for a good year and a half now,” said the district’s Chief Financial Officer John Stewart, who handled many of the arrangements. “We’ve always had congestion on that side of the street for pick up and drop-off time. We were looking for a solution to get as much traffic off the neighborhood streets as possible and onto the campus.”

Though the project has been in the works since 2009, the congestion problem has become more pressing since the district’s May 2010 decision to eliminate bus transportation for students.

The total cost of the project is budgeted at $506,000. This sum includes some additional renovations, such as handicap access to the front Bayless Intermediate.

The construction contract has been awarded to C. Rallo Contracting Company, which put in the lowest bid when the district solicited bids at the beginning of January.

“We had seven bids come in. C. Rallo was the lowest bidder. Of course, our architects reviewed all the qualifications and had experience working with C. Rallo,” Stewart said. “We feel like we have a quality contractor as well as a reasonable price.”

The contract includes a further $124,000 project to widen Hildesheim Avenue, paid for by St. Louis County. When the district submitted its plans to the county for approval a year ago, county officials saw an opportunity to expand this small side street.

The county offered the district the choice of either taking half a lane out of school property and half a lane out of the residential property on the other side, or taking a whole lane out of school property. According to Stewart, the Board of Education, not wishing to disturb its neighbors, elected to take the whole lane’s width from its own property.

The total project is expected to be finished before the start of the 2011-2012 school year, with a planned substantial completion date of Aug. 15. The portion of the construction behind the schools—mostly moving earth and laying asphalt—will begin as soon as spring weather breaks. The construction in front of the schools will begin once school lets out.

Stewart said that hopefully, the construction will not impact traffic very much.