MoDOT plans Wednesday open house on massive I-70 expansion project in mid-Missouri

Boone County Presiding Commissioner Kip Kendrick (D) and GOP Governor Mike Parson shake hands at the historic I-70 bill-signing ceremony in MACC’s Columbia parking lot near the interstate (August 15, 2023 file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

This afternoon and evening are your opportunities to learn new details about the massive I-70 expansion project that begins this summer between Columbia and Kingdom City, including improved intersections and I-70 and Highway 63 and at I-70 and Highway 54.

Representatives from the state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) will hold the open house style meeting from 4-7 pm Wednesday at Boone Electric Cooperative’s headquarters on Rangeline, near busy I-70. No formal presentation will be made, so MoDOT says you can arrive anytime between 4-7. MoDOT engineers and representatives from contractor Millstone Weber and designer Jacobs will be on-hand to answer your questions.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R) signed bipartisan legislation in August that provides $2.8 billion to reconstruct and expand I-70 to six lanes from Blue Springs to Wentzville. Boone County’s bipartisan legislative delegation was unanimous in its support of the bill. Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden (R-Columbia) and State Rep. Cheri Toalson Reisch (R-Hallsville) voted for it. State Reps. David Tyson Smith, Doug Mann, Adrian Plank and Kathy Steinhoff (all D-Columbia) voted for the bipartisan bill as well. All six lawmakers joined Governor Parson for the August bill-signing ceremony in MACC’s parking lot, near I-70.