Slow progress on replacing weak stop signs around St. Louis

ST. LOUIS – It’s been nearly three months since we uncovered the problem of stop signs falling apart or even being cut in half in the city of St. Louis. We found that the signs were made of cardboard-like material.

In August, we found dozens of damaged signs across the city. It’s November now. The problem remains.

Two weeks after we found half of a stop sign near Al’s Restaurant in the North Riverfront neighborhood, it still needs to be replaced.

“It’s a little weird. You have half a stop. What’s the point? You left half of it behind,” laughed Zell Marshall of Belleville as he drove past St. Louis.

A mile or two away, the St. Louis Blues opened their season at Enterprise Center with a similar half-stop sign on the southwest corner. This has now been replaced.

If you look closely at the damaged signs, you will notice that they resemble cardboard. The reflective lettering has a tendency to peel off. Signs warp after being exposed to St. Louis weather.

The city’s Street Department confirms the installation of hundreds (perhaps more than 1,000) of them two to three years ago, when a supplier of fiberglass stop signs stopped making them.

The department is now using metal signs purchased through MoDOT, like the new one at the Enterprise Center, to replace the weak signs. Due to the ongoing labor shortage in the department, progress has been very slow.