Blanchette Memorial Bridge

Infobox_Bridge
bridge_name= Blanchette Memorial Bridge


caption=
official_name=
also_known_as=
carries= 10 lanes of Interstate 70
crosses= Missouri River
locale= St. Louis County and St. Charles County in Missouri
maint= Missouri Department of Transportation
id=
design= Cantilever
mainspan= 146.3 m (480 ft)
length= 1,244 m (4,083 ft)
width= WB: 18.3 m (60 ft)
EB: 20.7 m (68 ft)
clearance=
below=
traffic= 165,000 [ [http://www.modot.mo.gov/stlouis/news_and_information/rte364firstbday.htm Route 364 First Birthday ] ]
open= WB: 1958
EB: 1978
closed=
toll=
map_cue=
map_

map_text=
map_width=
lat= 38.765
long= -90.482

The Blanchette Memorial Bridge are two twin cantilever bridges carrying Interstate 70 across the Missouri River between St. Louis County and St. Charles County, Missouri, opened in 1959. Handling an average of 165,000 vehicle transits per day, it is the area's busiest bridge. Construction of the first interstate highway project under provisions of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 started west of the bridge's present location. A sign commemorating the site of the nation's first interstate project stands next to Interstate 70 just east of the Missouri Route 94/First Capitol Drive overpass.

The bridge is named for French Canadian fur trader and hunter Louis Blanchette, who founded St. Charles as a post along the Missouri River; the village was the first European settlement along this waterway.

ee also

*List of crossings of the Missouri River

References

Crossings navbox
structure = Crossings
place = Missouri River
bridge = Blanchette Memorial Bridge
bridge signs =
upstream = Veterans Memorial Bridge
upstream signs =
downstream = Old St. Charles Bridge (demolished)
downstream signs =