Main runway reopens at St. Louis Downtown Airport
By Bill Raack
11/21/11

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Officials say the completion of improvements to the main runway at St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia will help the facility expand its clientele and generate new business.

The six-month, $7.4 million project widened and lengthened the runway and improved the runway’s lighting system. Airport director Bob McDaniel says they also strengthened the runway to support larger aircraft like the Boeing 757 and Airbus 320.

"The real focus is our sports teams that come to play baseball, football and hockey. We’re ten minutes from all of the major sports venues and they can come and go through here very, very efficiently," McDaniel said at a press conference Monday.

St. Louis Downtown Airport is the third-busiest airport in the state of Illinois. The bulk of the funding for the runway improvements came from the federal government as part of the FAA authorization bill.

Check out photos.

Although most of the people using the new bridge will likely be from Illinois, I see Missourians being insistent on naming it something most of the Illinoisans wont be too pleased with.

I hear you. Maybe there should be a coin toss to see which state gets to name the bridge. Or maybe Illinois could name one half and Missouri the other half resulting in a hypenated named bridge (Lincoln-Obama Bridge, for example). It's only fair considering that both states paid for the bridge's construction.

That's two Illinois Presidents, and one is Obama. I doubt they would be down with it. Lincoln-Truman, is more likely.

Well in that case, maybe it should be named Obama-Truman. :tup: Lincoln has enough stuff named after him, and all he really did was free enslaved Africans. Nothing big.

I would be down with anything named after Obama, I just don't think Missouri would be. After-all Missouri already pitched the idea of naming it after Reagan. :yuck:

True. LOL!! But Missouri couldn't dictate the name of Illinois' half of the bridge. How about Reagan-Obama? Or Obama-Reagan? After all, Obama does sometime act like a Republican. :haha:

Then again, a bridge with the name "Reagan" in it should not connect to a historically Democratic city. I'm sticking with Truman-Obama or Obama-Truman. And by the way, won't the rerouting of streets somehow connect this bridge to the Truman Parkway in St. Louis?

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photos from St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Obama-Reagan would be the strangest name for a bridge. They should just call it "the contradicting bridge," or the "Ying-Yang."

LOL! Well, Ying-Yang just about describes Missouri and Illinois too. The Ying-Yang Bridge has a nice ring to it.

It would be most sane if the cities of St. Louis and East St. Louis had rights to name the bridge.

I like the ring of the Stan Musial Bridge myself. Great figure in St. Louis culture and all-around good person.

I could see the Ronald Reagan Bridge happening, since Missouri is so Republican (compared to much of the Midwest) and Reagan was born in Illinois. Chicago is one of the most Democratic cities in the country yet the highway through the West Side is named for Eisenhower. I don't like the Reagan Bridge though, either.

Missouri is a solidly conservative state, but there is no way in hell the city of St. Louis (even much of St. Louis County) would love to see a Ronald Reagan Bridge.

That's certainly true, but that's the sort of naming idea that state legislatures love.

On a different topic, what's being displaced by the bridge's approaches? Looking at online maps, the Illinois side seems to go through a very vacant strip between East St. Louis and Brooklyn, but what is being moved on the Missouri side?

Yeah, but he's from way upstate Illinois, and St Clair County never voted for him. It was one of 6 counties in Illinois, which included Cook, not to. Stan Musial is fine. A bridge not named after a person would be cool too. I mean , look at the Golden Gate Bridge.

The State of Missouri's inept Republican legislature has practically ruined St. Louis Aerotropolis by not approving tax credits for commercial development and freight forwarders around Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. If you want economic progress State of Missouri, you have to partner resources. China delivered. Missouri didn't. And I doubt if St. Louis or Missouri can get China back to the table after this fiasco. Sad.

Lambert looks beyond China for trade hub
St. Louis Business Journal
Date: Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 6:53am CST

Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge says the airport still wants to build a trade hub with China but has decided to focus more on attracting cargo flights to and from Latin and South America, KMOX reports. For five weeks straight, China has failed to keep its Monday date to land a cargo plane at Lambert.

Source

Here's a video of the inaugural landing as well speeches pertaining to the inaugural flight.

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After years of hard work by the St. Louis region to land this air cargo hub, if another city in a different state eventually gets these air cargo flights, it would amount to an epic business failure by the State of Missouri.

Here's a video of Lambert-International's Airport Director explaining how the tax credits would have worked.

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Here's a video of Lambert-International's Airport Director explaining how St. Louis Aerotropolis would benefit St. Louis and the State of Missouri.

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14th St. in North St. Louis is restored into the city's grid.

Article: EPA recognizes Old North St. Louis

A major redevelopment in the Old North St. Louis (ONSL) neighborhood of St. Louis has received national attention and a national award. I used to go to this street as a kid when it was a pedestrian mall. Great job. Check out the videos.

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Videos

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14th street is my favorite collection of buildings probably anywhere.