The 511 Traffic Reports End Tuesday in St. Louis

For drivers in the St. Louis region who took out their cell phones and punched in 511 to check for traffic delays before starting a trip, they will have to find an alternative beginning Feb. 1.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) service for the St. Louis area ends Jan. 31.

For the past five years MoDOT 511 has been provided by Navteq, a computer mapping and traffic reporting service owned by the Finnish company, Nokia.

The contract between MoDOT and Navteq expired this past June, but the service continued on a month-to-month basis.

In December, Navteq announced it was discontinuing its traffic reporting service and closing regional offices across the country.

An editor with the St. Louis Navteq office told Patch that MoDOT wants to restore the 511 service in the future and expand it on a statewide basis. In St. Louis, Navteq’s main office was at Tesson Ferry and Interstate 270 with a desk at the MoDOT Traffic Management Center at Interstate 64 and Highway 141. 

The company also provided producers and on-air talent for St. Louis television stations. The employees working at TV stations began working for a new company spun off from Navteq in November. The St. Louis office closed Tuesday, January 31.