Columbia’s mayor wants to draw your attention to a key road closing in east Columbia that begins Monday and will last for about 300 days.
The Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) plans to close I-70 Drive Southeast from near Woodridge drive to Glenstone drive. Mayor Barbara Buffaloe spoke to 939 the Eagle after briefing Columbia’s REDI board this week about the project:
“MoDOT has put out that I-70 Southeast will be closed for 300 days starting (Monday) March 16. And so making sure that people are planning their commute appropriately and maybe avoiding that area altogether if they can,” Mayor Buffaloe says.
The impacted area is near Moser’s. Motorists will be directed around the closure via Keene and St. Charles road. MoDOT says closing I-70 Drive Southeast in that area will enable crews to shift traffic on I-70 to build new bridges on I-70.
Columbia-area motorists who shop at Moser’s on I-70 Drive Southeast or who work or have medical appointments on Keene will be impacted by the closure. Mayor Buffaloe simply wants you to be prepared:
“You know we have those improvements at the roundabout at Keene and the I-70 outer road there and people are going to have to go all the way over to St. Charles and go around that way. So yeah, just making (sure) people are prepared for it,” Mayor Buffaloe says.
This work is part of the $405-million project to improve I-70 between Columbia and Kingdom City. Improve I-70 program director Eric Kopinski says the 300-day closure will allow traffic shifts and the construction of two new bridges on I-70 for a new north-south underpass. Kopinski joined 939 the Eagle’s Mike Murphy on the “Eagle Eye Drive at 5.”