The city of Arnold plans to have a sidewalk and shared-use path added along one side of Missouri State Road near Sherwood Elementary School, and it has hired engineering firms to design improvements for the Richardson Road-Old Lemay Ferry Road intersection and for Pomme Road.
City Council members voted 6-0 on June 15 to enter into a Transportation Alternatives Program agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, the Missouri Department of Transportation’s governing body, to add about 1,500 feet of sidewalk on the north side of Missouri State Road from the Woodland Villas to Sherwood Elementary School.
The council also voted 6-0 to pay Horner and Shifrin Inc., which has an office in St. Louis, up to $98,995.07 to design a realignment and stormwater pipe replacement project at the intersection of Richardson Road and Old Lemay Ferry Road, as well as another $41,925.75 to oversee that project.
Also at that meeting, the council voted 6-0 to award a $374,751.71 contract to Oates and Associates Inc. in St. Louis to design Phase 1 of the Pomme Road improvement project.
Ward 1 Councilman Jason Fulbright and Ward 4 Councilman Butch Cooley were absent from the June 15 meeting.
Arnold will pay for all three road improvement projects with the help of federal grants, which has the city paying for about 20 percent of each project.
“They are all good projects,” City Administrator Bryan Richison said. “It is really helping to stretch the city’s money that we received grants for all of those. The amount of federal grant money that we are bringing into Arnold to help lessen the burden on our taxpayers is huge.”
Missouri State Road
The sidewalk and shared-use pathway project will cost an estimated $800,000, and Public Works Director Judy Wagner said the city will pay about $168,000 of that cost, with the federal grant covering about $632,000 of the project’s cost.
A 10-foot-wide, shared-use path will be constructed on the north side of Missouri State road from Oak Ridge Parkway near the Sherwood campus, connecting to an existing 5-foot-wide sidewalk. A 6-foot-wide sidewalk will be constructed from where the 10-foot-wide path ends to Astra Way.
By connecting the new pathway to the existing sidewalk, people will be able to safely walk on the north side of Missouri State Road from near the school to the Arnold Commons shopping plaza, where a Dierbergs grocery store and Lowe’s home improvement store are located.
“It will allow people to walk to the stores and restaurants in Arnold Commons, and they will be able to cross Church Road to go into the Water Tower shopping plaza (where Walmart is located and other stores and restaurants),” Wagner said.
Wagner said construction on that project is expected to start in June 2025 and be completed by November 2025, if not earlier.
The sidewalk project also will include the replacement of an existing crosswalk from the north to south side of Missouri State Road with one in a safer location, according to plans Wagner shared.
The existing crosswalk is near where Missouri State Road splits on a curve with Astra Way. The crosswalk also is close to a portion of Missouri State Road where parents park to drop off and pick up children at Sherwood on the south side of the road.
“There is so much movement there, it is not an ideal location,” Wagner said of the current crosswalk.
The new crosswalk will be relocated near the intersection of Missouri State Road and Oak Ridge Parkway. There will be no sidewalk on the south side of Missouri State Road at that location, so those walking to the school will need to walk in the grassy area next to the road.
Richison said he believes the area will be safer when the project is completed, and he is glad Arnold is taking another step to create walkways throughout the city.
“That has always been a challenging area by Sherwood,” Richison said. “My daughter went there, and I think it will make it safer for the kids who do walk to have the sidewalks and better crosswalk.
“In general, it is another step in our efforts with sidewalks across the city. We want to find gaps in our sidewalk system, fill those gaps and create a network throughout the city, so that if you are interested and able to, you can walk to a lot of places in town on a sidewalk. I want to work toward that future to have a more walkable community.
Richardson/Old Lemay Ferry roads
Arnold already entered a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission to cover the cost of improvements to the intersection at Richardson and Old Lemay Ferry roads.
That improvement project will cost about $824,770, and the city will cover 80 percent of the cost with a $659,816 grant it received from the East-West Gateway Council of Governors. That will leave about $164,954 for the city to pay, according to council documents.
Wagner said the intersection will be realigned about 200 feet south of where Richardson Road and Old Lemay Ferry Road currently connect, creating a 90-degree turn instead of the current Y-turn configuration.
She also said a dedicated left turn lane will be added to Richardson Road for access onto southbound Old Lemay Ferry Road.
Wagner said a stormwater pipe that runs under Richardson Road will be replaced, too.
“The big thing is replacing that culvert that carries the creek under Richardson Road,” she said.
Richison agreed that the stormwater pipe replacement is a crucial part of the project, which is expected to start in March 2025 and end in October 2025.
“I know there has been a lot of attention on addressing the intersection, but the pressing matter is the stormwater pipe,” he said. “We are worried about that pipe. It is in poor condition, and we want to get it replaced before it collapses and causes a real headache for us.”
Wagner said by realigning the intersection, the city is setting up the possibility of expanding Old Lemay Ferry Road as traffic continues to increase in the area.
“It will give us the right of way we need to have Richardson Road at more of a 90-degree angle,” she said. “You normally do not put signals at intersections that have anything more than a 90-degree curve because you can’t see it from all directions. By realigning it to the south, you are entering Old Lemay Ferry at a 90-degree angle. We can widen Old Lemay Ferry and add turn lanes and potentially a signal or whatever other improvement we need to make there.”
In about two years, the city likely will begin applying for a federal grant to improve Old Lemay Ferry Road.
“It takes about three years to get through the grant process,” she said. “By the time you get the grant and all agreements approved, it is a process. You don’t want to wait, so you have to use a crystal ball to predict how long the pavement can last. You don’t want to go too early because you are wasting the longevity of the pavement. You have to have that happy balance, and when you do apply, you want to make sure you can get it. Because of the heaviness of the traffic, you can guess how long the surface will last since there is a scoring criteria on the condition of the existing pavement.”
Pomme Road
The city already entered a Surface Transportation Block Grant with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission to improve just more than half a mile of Pomme Road and add sidewalks between Lonedell Road and Rockview Lane.
Wagner said Arnold is projected to pay about $1.5 million for the estimated $3.2 million project, and a grant will cover about $1.6 million.
Receiving the grant is one of the first steps needed to make improvements to the road, according to City Council documents.
Numerous other steps, such as holding a public hearing about the work, acquiring right of ways and coordinating work with utility companies, will need to be completed before the city may seek bids for construction, Wagner said.
She said the work will likely begin in March 2026 and be completed in October 2026.
Richison said Pomme Road needs to be upgraded, and he also said it will take a long time to complete all the desired improvements.
“When it is done, it will be a big improvement, but it will take a number of years before we get the entire stretch from Old Lemay Ferry Road to Lonedell Road done,” he said.