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MoDOT: I-70 climbing lanes at mid-Missouri’s Mineola Hill benefitting motorists and truckers

MoDOT: I-70 climbing lanes at mid-Missouri’s Mineola Hill benefitting motorists and truckers

MoDOT credits 1.2 miles of truck climbing lanes on I-70 in mid-Missouri’s Montgomery County for increasing safety for motorists and for truckers (2022 file photo courtesy of MoDOT’s Cole
Duenckel)

Several hundred transportation and law enforcement officers from across Missouri will hear a detailed  presentation Wednesday afternoon in Columbia about the engineering involved in a successful massive I-70 project in mid-Missouri’s Montgomery County.

The state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) and its prime contractor, Columbia-based Emery Sapp and Sons, have built 1.2 miles of truck climbing lanes on I-70 at Mineola Hill. The climbing lanes are on two large hills that truckers sometimes have difficulty with. MoDOT says the climbing lanes have boosted safety for both cars and trucks that travel at different speeds along that stretch of I-70.

Barlett and West handled design services for the project, and Barlett and West’s Todd Kempker will deliver a presentation about it Wednesday at the transportation and safety conference.