On Tuesday, Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed House Bill 4, which aims to expand Interstate 70 from two lanes to three across Missouri.
Missouri's fiscal year 2024 budget provides $2.8 billion for building a new lane in each direction on approximately 200 miles of I-70.
The project is expected to begin next summer, and will take approximately 7 years to complete.
The goal of the project is to ease congestion on the interstate, especially between Kansas City and Missouri.
Gov. Parson called the expansion a "game changer". He also said the project will not only make driving conditions safer, but also offer new business opportunities to Missouri.
"I think the number one that's going to be much safer to drive I-70," Parson said. "But the economic impact, this is going to have to be able to get product up and down the road and then the opportunities businesses are going to have to bring in along the interstate."
Eric Kopinski, the Missouri Department of Transportation's (MODOT) I-70 project director, said the project also aims to help workers financially.
"In years past, they've had to work to go outside of the state for work when times get slow," Kopinski said. "And so for there to be stability for the next five to seven years, there's a lot of construction companies and design companies here in in local Columbia and then in St. Louis and Kansas City and elsewhere that that are making investments into their people, into their companies."
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Source: Komu.com
