Highway 40 is open!

I must have missed the announcement that the construction on Highway 40 in St. Louis was completed and open for commuting since before Christmas of 2009! Taking 40 is a seemingly much more direct route to my second job, so the other night after hearing the good news at work, I decided to go home through that way to see how much faster it might be for me. Overall, I'd say I am impressed with the work they've done. What an extremely smooth road surface they have achieved!! I mean, it was so smooth I *almost* forgot I was driving a couple of times!! 'Thumbs up' boys for functionality!

As for style...only a 'Meh.' Of course, after having traveled in several cities across America, I can definitely see areas that were suffering a loss of creativity. I'm thinking immediately of the fantastically decorative overpasses in Dallas, Texas I saw last November...


Or how about these earthen colored overpasses in Albuquerque, New Mexico? Most likely they used local materials for these jobs. It's fitting for the region and a welcome sight to these St. Louis eyes!

Unfortunately we were left with ordinary concrete overpasses and another opportunity to show some local love and hometown pride has gone down the drain. Maybe we should have given the designers a bit of a testosterone booster and atleast gotten some animals near the Zoo or *something*!