City plans $9M in highway improvements by 2009

That was the message of a presentation during the July 27 investor meeting of the Springfield Business & Development Corp., a subsidiary of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

City Public Works Director Marc Thornsberry listed 10 major projects being funded by the city’s capital improvement project quarter-cent sales tax. The projects cover several areas, including the National Avenue and Sunshine Street corridors, and comprise nearly $9 million in spending by 2009.

Additional planned projects include intersection upgrades at National Avenue and Chestnut Expressway and Glenstone Avenue and Primrose Street, funded by the city’s eighth-cent transportation tax.

Cooperation

One reason so many projects are on the docket in the area, according to city and state leaders, is the cooperation between various levels of government.

“We couldn’t have done these projects by ourselves,” said Dan Smith, the county’s highway department administrator, “and (the city) couldn’t have done them by themselves.

“Together, we’re doing something wonderful for the community. We couldn’t have had any better partners than MoDOT and the city of Springfield.”

Jim Anderson, president of the Springfield chamber and chairman of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, said that transportation is vital to the continued success of Springfield’s economy, as evidenced by the impending improvements of other major roads leading into southwest Missouri: U.S. highways 60 and 71.

Once those projects are completed, he said, Highway 60 will be a four-lane corridor between Springfield and Sikeston, and Highway 71 will be four lanes between the Arkansas state line and Kansas City.

“We’ll be cutting a lot of ribbons in the next couple of years on corridor projects that, frankly, have been in the works for 30 years,” Anderson said.

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