MoDOT talks about the dangers of the connector

The Highway 63, I-70 connector to many Mid Missourians is a vital intersection. The connector leads to Jefferson City, Lake of the Ozarks, and to the east side of town. With over 500 miles of streets in Columbia, lots of commuters find themselves in bumper to bumper traffic on any given day Monday thru Friday during rush hour.

If you spend on average ten minutes a day on the connector sitting in traffic, that equals to 50 minutes a week, which in the end leads to 43 hours a year. All those hours consumed just sitting in your car waiting for traffic to clear up.

According to MoDOT this is one of their biggest priorities, “It’s just one of those priorities in the area, but it’s hard to take care of because of the amount of resources it takes.”

In 2015, roughly two dozen traffic accidents happened near the connector, and 0 fatalities were reported. Just this morning, a semi truck turned over at the connector backing up morning traffic for commuters.

According to MoDOT’s Assistant Director of Engineering, Travis Koestner, the reason nothing further can be done is because, “There is just too much traffic… how it’s currently set up and configured… so that’s why any fix in that area could be done means a whole reconfiguration of the area.”

MoDOT also says that the project would cost a fortune, “it really is an expensive fix… I mean we’re talking in the range of 50 million dollars plus to fix this area, and to get full traffic benefits.”