Lebanon expressway tops area’s unfunded needs list

A Lebanon expressway is at the top of the Lake of the Ozarks Council of Local Governments list of unfunded needs this year. The list, following its compilation at Tuesday’s Transportation Advisory Committee, was advanced to a future Jefferson City meeting held by the Missouri Department of Transportation, TAC vice chair Rod Reid said. Mitch Shields, executive director of LOCLG, explained that presiding commissioners from Laclede, Camden, Morgan and Miller, transportation organization representives and MoDOT representatives meet as the district’s Transportation Advisory Committee six times a year to discuss county road needs to send on to MoDOT. During Tuesday’s meeting, Shields reported that county representatives arrived with 16 total projects (four from each county) that are currently unfunded and that the counties see as pressing needs. Over the course of the meeting, the group narrowed down the list to five to send on to MoDOT. Other projects include the Highway 5 and Highway 54 intersection in Camdenton, a turning lane in the City of Eldon the realignment of County Routes F, TT and MM on Shawnee Bend in Camden County, and additional lanes and turn pockets on the Osage Beach stretch of Mo. Route 42 to 134. Reid said the list’s top project, a proposed expressway in Lebanon, would help decrease traffic, particularly truck traffic, on Jefferson Ave. The expressway would branch off the city route near the Speaker Service Station and extend to YY. The completed project would be entirely in city limits. “What we’re seeing now is the amount of traffic on Washington [Ave] is way above what a city street’s designed to carry. But people are using Washington to avoid the traffic on Jefferson,” Reid said. In addition to traffic congestion, Reid also noted that without a bypass like the expressway, the city is currently bisected by the railroad. Reid said a train accident or stop would cut half of the town off from the hospital. The expressway would have a bridge that goes over the tracks. For more on this story, see Saturday's LCR.