Lake News Focus: Hwy 54

By Ceil Abbott

When the Highway 54 expressway is completed in December 2010, travelers will be able to pass through Osage Beach at 65-miles-per-hour, while local drivers will be able to enter or exit the high-speed roadway at any of six separate locations.

According to information presented to the public by MoDOT on Tuesday, Nov. 1, construction of the $154 million Highway 54 expressway project will begin next year and be completed by late 2010. The expressway will carry thru traffic along a four-lane roadway from just west of state Route KK in Osage Beach to the junction of Highway 54 and Business 54 in Lake Ozark.

When the expressway project is completed, the current Highway 54 will be renamed “Business 54” and ownership of the roadway and the responsibility for its maintenance will be turned over to the city of Osage Beach. MoDOT will own and maintain the expressway.

Construction on the section of the expressway east of the Grand Glaize Bridge is scheduled to begin next summer. Construction on the section west of the bridge is scheduled to begin in 2008. When the project is completed there will be six interchanges that will give drivers the opportunity to move from one roadway to the other at Route KK, Broadwater Road, Jeffries Road, Nichols Road, Highway 42 and Business 54 in Lake Ozark.

A large crowd of Lake area residents, civic and business leaders attended two open house meetings, hosted by MoDOT last week. The attendees were treated to a 15 – 20-foot-long display of MoDOT’s design of the proposed expressway and animated videos of traffic using interchanges connecting Business 54 with the expressway. Also on display was an animated video of traffic on both highways crossing the Grand Glaize Bridge.

According to MoDOT’s design, the two traffic lanes that currently cross the Grand Glaize Bridge will be widened to three. Traffic using both Business 54 and the expressway will cross the bridge with Business 54 traffic relegated to the far right-hand lane and expressway traffic relegated to the two left-hand lanes.

At a meeting last spring, MoDOT officials announced that the most costly of the six planned interchanges, Jeffries Road, had been eliminated from the design as a cost saving measure. However, constrution of that interchange, immediately west of the Grand Glaize Bridge, is now back in the design thanks to the efforts of U.S. Senator Christopher Bond.

Lake of the Ozarks Transportation Council (LOTC) Chairman, Jim Herfurth, said the residents of the Lake area owe a debt of gratitude to Bond for his efforts.

“The LOTC had many conversations with Senator Bond and his staff over the Jeffries Road interchange. I believe this may be the only time Congress has added a line item to a transportation bill specifically to cover such a small section of a highway. Lake area residents should be very grateful to Kit Bond for his efforts on our behalf,” Herfurth said.

Herfurth, who told the Lake News Focus he plans to step down as LOTC chairman Jan. 1, is excited to see construction of the expressway project finally get underway.

“It’s so exciting to see this project get off the ground. Having the expressway will make such a difference in the lifestyle of Lake area businesses and residents. The expressway is finally going to be built thanks to the voters who supported Amendment 3 and the hard work of the MoDOT engineers,” Herfurth said.

According to MoDOT, funding for the $158 million expressway project is broken down in the following manner: $27 million spent on right of way purchases in previous years; $99 million in transportation bonds as a result of the passage of Amendment 3; $22 million set aside in the current Statewide Transportation Improvement Program; $3 million in federal funds earmarked for the Jeffries Road interchange; and $7 million in private funding.

MoDOT District 5 engineer, Roger Schwartze said 60 percent of the needed right of way has already been purchased and negotiations on purchase of the remaining 40 percent is underway.

According to the plans displayed at last week’s meeting, the section of expressway that begins near the Business 54 junction in Lake Ozark will be built on right of way south of current highway, Traffic on that section will travel behind the Prewitt’s Point and Home Depot shopping centers. Then between Home Depot and Wal Mart, Business 54 will be elevated on two bridges that will be built over the expressway as it curves to a point north of the current highway to connect with the Grand Glaize Bridge. Construction of those two bridges to carry Business 54 over the expressway is scheduled to begin next summer. Once construction starts, a temporary detour will be utilized to carry traffic around the construction site. West of the Grand Glaize Bridge, the expressway will be built on MoDOT right of way north of the current highway. When completed the expressway will run behind Lake Regional Hospital and the Main Street shopping center and connect with the current four-lane section of Highway 54 west of Route KK.

According to MoDOT traffic on Highway 54 through Osage Beach, during the summer season, averages between 43,000 and 50,000 cars per day. Projections call for those numbers to increase to 72,000 cars per day over the next 20 years. If nothing is done by the year 2020 Highway 54 will be in total gridlock and it will be nearly impossible to travel from one end of Osage Beach to the other during the tourist season. However, Schwartze said, the addition of the four-lane expressway should relieve much of that congestion.