Towing at the Blanchette Bridge

What the Blanchette actually is

The Blanchette Memorial Bridge carries I-70 over the Missouri River between St. Charles and St. Louis County. It handles roughly 165,000 vehicles a day, which makes it the busiest bridge in the St. Louis region and one of the busiest in Missouri.

For anyone who lives in St. Charles County, it is simply part of the commute. For a tow company, it is the defining feature of the local geography — because almost every competitor of any size is on the other side of it.

Why this page exists

When you search for a tow truck from a shoulder on I-70, a great many of the results are companies based in St. Louis County. They will take your call. What they will not tell you is that their truck has to get through the same traffic you are sitting in, cross the same bridge, and then find you.

At 5pm on a weekday, or after any incident on the bridge, that is not a difference of a few minutes. It is the difference between a wait you can tolerate and a wait that ruins your evening.

We are based at 1890 1st Capitol Dr. #553 in St. Charles. Our trucks start on the St. Charles County side. That is the whole argument, and it is the one that matters when you are the person standing on the shoulder.

The approaches are where most calls come from

Relatively few breakdowns happen on the deck itself. Far more happen on the approaches, where traffic slows, backs up and bunches — the Fifth Street and Zumbehl interchanges on the St. Charles side, and the long queues that form eastbound in the afternoon.

That backing-up is what produces the classic incident here: a rear-end collision in slowing traffic. See accident recovery and I-70 towing generally.

Summer adds overheating to the mix, because sitting in stop-start traffic on a hot afternoon is the hardest thing you can ask of a marginal cooling system.

What to do if it happens to you

• Get off the bridge if you still can. An exit, a shoulder past the deck, anywhere with room is better than the deck itself.
• Hazards on immediately, so the traffic behind has as much warning as possible.
• Stay belted in if traffic is heavy and fast. Getting out on a bridge deck is rarely the safer option.
• Call 911 as well as us if you are in a live lane, if anyone is hurt, or if there is no shoulder where you are.
• Tell us your direction of travel. Eastbound and westbound are separated by the whole width of the bridge.

What we bring to a highway call

Highway work is different from a driveway. Traffic is moving fast, the shoulder is narrow in places, and the priority is getting you and the vehicle off the road before anything else. Our drivers are insured, our trucks are marked, and we work highway calls every week across St. Charles County.

Whether it ends up being a tire change, a jump start, fuel, a winch-out, accident recovery or a straight tow, one call covers it.

Other corridors we cover

We also run I-70, I-64 / US-40, Highway 370 and the Discovery Bridge, Highway 94 through the wine country, Highway 364 / Page Avenue and Highway 79 north along the river.