ST. LOUIS COUNTY (KMOX) - Dreams of building an interstate to link areas north and south of I-44 in Saint Louis County are gone.

What’s being proposed now is called the South County Connector, according to St. Louis County Highway Department Project Manager John Hicks.

“Our sense is that this will improve access to the Metrolink station there at Shrewsbury,” he said. “It will pull quite a bit of traffic off the local roads so we’ll make those more walkable.”

Hicks says if a revised environmental impact study is approved at the federal level in coming months, a public hearing on the Connector could be held around the first of April, and construction could start in 2020.

However, he says the federal funding needed for the project is not currently available. That could alter the start date.

“Budgets are very tight at the federal and state levels so there is no funding identified at this time,” Hicks said.