Lane shifts begin on I-70 bridges tonight

Drivers on I-70 in Columbia can expect some lane changes over the next couple of weeks.

Starting around 8 p.m. Tuesday night, crews shifted westbound traffic onto the new bridge over Rangeline. The same will happen with westbound traffic on the bridge over Garth Avenue on Wednesday night.

Next week, eastbound traffic will be shifted onto the existing westbound bridges over Rangeline and Garth. That will allow crews to tear down the existing eastbound bridges.

“The main thing to realize is it’s not going to be a straight shot through Columbia on I-70,” said Travis Koestner, MODOT assistant district engineer. “We’re going to have to do these kinks in traffic so we can get this construction complete.”

The work zone speed limit will also be reduced from 60 mph to 50 mph, which could cause traffic delays.

“Our models do show slowing down to 50 miles per hour it will back up traffic several times during the day,” Koestner said. “So this is when we’re really asking local travelers if they could find a different way around in Columbia.”

Sergeant Scott White with the Missouri State Highway Patrol said they will have special speed enforcement throughout the work zone.

“A lot of the crashes that we do work is because people get inattentive and impatient when they go through these work zones,” he said.

Highway Patrol would like to remind drivers to slow down and obey the reduced speed limit through the work zone.

White said there is an added fine when caught speeding in a work zone. The first offense has an added $250 fine on top of the speeding ticket. Every offense after that has an additional $300 fine.

Chip Jones, project manager with Emery Sapp and Sons, said they’ve had no major accidents in the work zone so far.

These lane shifts are expected to last until the I-70 bridge replacement project is completed next fall.