Council considers south-side traffic solution

City Council heard first reading Monday night on an agreement with CoxHealth to make improvements at the intersection of National Avenue and Primrose Street. Among the design changes to the intersection: adding dual left-turn lanes and dedicated right-turn lanes in all directions, as well as widening National to six lanes south of Primrose to the on- and off-ramps at James River Freeway.

The city will use money from its quarter-cent capital improvements sales tax to pay for the $4 million expansion, while Cox is donating the land to facilitate the expansion.

Rod Schaffer, Cox’s executive director of facilities management, said that in addition to wanting to participate in community efforts, the hospital donated the land to expedite the improvement process in one of the city’s most gridlocked areas.

“Between about 6 (a.m.) and 9 a.m. and then between 4 (p.m.) and 7 p.m., it gets really congested around here,” Schaffer said. “Not only does Cox generate its own traffic, but people are coming in and out of this community. It bottlenecks during those peak times, and we’re looking at solutions to that.”

Springfield Public Works Director Marc Thornsberry said traffic studies indicate that National needs to also be widened north of Primrose, though that is not part of this project.

Future improvements could also be made to the interchange of National and James River. Those changes would have to be in partnership with the Missouri Department of Transportation, which controls the freeway.

See SBJ’s Feb. 19 issue for more from the Springfield City Council meeting.