2023/06/12 - Mayor's Column: Pierce Boulevard and Brandywine

“AN OPEN DOOR TO O’FALLON”
A WEEKLY NOTE FROM MAYOR HERB ROACH
­­­

Over the next few months, you will see some changes taking place on Pierce Boulevard. You will also see construction starting on the Brandywine development on South Lincoln (this is the old Rasp Farm property that has the stop lights just before you get to I-64).

Over the last few months, the city has done traffic studies on Pierce Blvd. and White Pine and the surrounding area; held two public meetings for citizens and conducted two surveys to get citizens input on what we can do to reduce and control traffic on Pierce.

As a result of these meetings the preference from the citizens was overwhelmingly in favor of trying different types of traffic calming measures vs street closures.  The results of the surveys will shortly be sent out to the neighbors in another message, as well as some of the options to be tried.

As we move forward to develop the final plans, you will see two things happening in that area.  The first of these will be signage and enforcement of weight restrictions of the size and types of vehicles on the streets. The City has already been in communication with several firms that have had large trucks using this as a cut through.

The second will be some temporary calming measures to be put in place to see which are most effective and where the best location is for these.  These may include temporary mini-roundabouts, speed humps, bump outs and other possible options. 

The city is currently measuring the traffic and speed of traffic in the area to establish a baseline and will continue to do so when the different calming measures are used to see which are most effective.

Then the construction on the new Brandywine development will get underway shortly.  This new housing development is aimed at the 55 and older.  There are also two commercial lots that will also be developed in the front, near Lincoln.  One of these is to be a new Memory Care unit.

This is part of $25 million in projects that are already under contract for construction this summer.

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open.