Council tours Springfield’s traffic hot spots

The weekly council luncheon featured a bus tour of some of Springfield’s biggest traffic issues, as well as discussion about what is planned for those spots and how to fund needed improvements.

The tour traveled east on Chestnut Expressway to U.S. Highway 65, where Earl Newman, city assistant director of public works for traffic engineering, noted that intersection improvements are needed but funding is not currently available.

“The problem is that there’s not a foreseeable sufficient amount of money available to do this interchange without some help, and even then we’re not sure that we could do it all,” Newman told the group. He said discussions are under way with nearby developers to talk about possible funding help for the project, which would tie into an already-planned widening project for Highway 65 from Chestnut Expressway south to Battlefield Road.

That widening, Newman said, would connect to the Missouri Department of Transportation improvements at the Highway 60-Highway 65 interchange.

Other spots on the tour included the Highway 60-Glenstone Avenue intersection and projects on National Avenue at James River Freeway, Primrose Street, Battlefield Road, Seminole Street and Grant Street.

Proposed funding for most of the projects will come from a combination of the 1/8-cent and 1/4-cent sales taxes, as well as funding from MoDOT and Greene County.

The traffic tour also served to remind council members that the 1/8-cent tax is up for renewal; voters will decide Aug. 5 whether to continue the tax. Without that money, Newman said, several of the proposed projects could be postponed.

See SBJ’s June 30 issue for more on ongoing and upcoming transportation projects.