Chouteau Greenway Master Plan

The Chouteau Greenway Master Plan is a major public-private partnership to connect Washington University and Forest Park through the City of St. Louis to downtown and the Gateway Arch National Park, with spurs north and south to connect vibrant neighborhoods, parks, business and arts districts, employment centers, transit hubs, and dozens of cultural and educational institutions. In September of 2017 Great Rivers Greenway District, along with their project partners, sponsored a 10-month design competition that invited design teams to create a conceptual design to help partners determine the overall vision, plan and schedule for designing, engineering and building each additional part of the greenway.

As a member of the winning team of Stoss Landscape Architecture, DMA is performing civil and structural engineering services as well as surveying and 3D scanning for the Chouteau Greenway. DMA has played a significant role on the team from early in the competition and throughout subsequent project phases. DMA Management has been instrumental in supporting both the technical advisory group meetings and citizen advisory group meetings. This includes work focused on positive economic development, cultural and racial influence for the greenway, technical alignment, equity and inclusion.

From a technical alignment standpoint, DMA’s engineering team has been tasked with leading the engineering effort for this project. DMA collaborated with the design team to determine the criteria and weighting for the alignment feasibility assessment along each segment as it relates to above and below grade infrastructure, storm water, ADA, bridge structures and vertical facilities. Internal teams reviewed standard ROW conditions, encroachments and outlined where proposed alignments will have the most conflict with existing ownership and existing heavy infrastructure. DMA identify planned City and institution street projects and potential impacts to the proposed alignments and outlined the functional and operational efficiency requirements, maintenance standards, construction Phasing Requirements for each alignment. This was done through scoring based on a predetermined weighting criteria.

All of this was backed up by reviewing, categorizing, processing and compiling base maps for the studied alignments- Gas, Electric, Water, Sewer, Steam and Telecommunications. Civil teams developed narratives for each utility outlining specific utility requirements for greenway projects, outline major constraints for utility relocations and/or coordination with major capital projects. DMA identify stormwater concerns, drainage issues within the alignment corridor areas while mapping open spaces, parks, existing trees and vegetation within the study area.

Critical stakeholder meetings helped DMA to identify all requirements, challenges and opportunities for the greenway and previously planned projects. A heavy focus was placed on Sustainability and Best Management Practices (BMPs) that will be incorporated into the designs to meet local requirements while developing recommended engineering solutions for challenging conditions encountered along the proposed alignments.

DMA civil and structural engineers worked closely with the architects and landscape architects to review bridge design concepts, study facilities and provide consulting related to connections of existing facilities, both horizontal and vertical. While doing so, DMA worked with the Office on the Disabled and reviewed all requirements to assist in evaluation of the alignments existing ADA conditions.

The framework of the plan was completed in Summer 2019. Particular pieces of geography will be studied in projects called “labs” to test the framework and further design specific greenway segments.