Council approves Providence, Vineyards road projects

Two major road projects received a green light Monday from the Columbia city council, including some big improvements to Providence Road near the MU campus.

The group voted unanimously to buy more than $1-million worth of easements near the intersection of Providence Road and Stadium Boulevard, near the University of Missouri football stadium. Columbia Public Works plans to extend the right turn lane of Providence Road north of the intersection, and also add stoplights at Burnam Road and Turner Avenue and remove the stoplight on Rollins Road.

The $1,020,000 price tag simply for buying the easements went up from its estimated cost in 2013, Public Works director David Nichols said at Monday’s meeting. Staff wanted to “act quickly” on the easements, as property values have gone up in the last two years in the area.

The city last held a public hearing on the Providence Road improvement project in June 2013, where members of the Grasslands subdivision battled a proposal that would include tearing down two homes near the corner of Providence and Burnam roads. Public Works said at Monday night’s meeting that no homes would be torn down during the project.

Nichols said construction of the project would cost $2,815,000.

The city council also approved a road extension project in the southeast part of town. Staff will build new roads around a planned elementary school off Route WW and Rolling Hills Road, in the Vineyards subdivision. The plan to extend Columbia Gorge Parkway to connect with the Woodlands subdivision – a Boone County neighborhood – will now include a gate, accessible by pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles.

Residents of the Woodlands subdivision were concerned with the increase in traffic from the new school replacing Cedar Ridge Elementary in 2018.