Dangerous Jefferson City interchange may soon undergo traffic study

A busy Jefferson City interchange may soon undergo a traffic study as the first step to improve the dangerous corridor.

The Clark Avenue Corridor is one of the city’s higher crash areas, according to City Engineer David Bange.

The road’s interchange with Highway 50 can be hectic during rush hour with its multiple intersections and high volume of traffic.

“You have a lot of people making a lot of maneuvers in a very short amount of space,” Bange said. “And so just that congestion issue, particularly in the morning and evening rush hours, and it’s kind of created a little bit of a dangerous situation.”

Right now, the City Council is considering a bill for an agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation to fund a traffic study of the the corridor from East McCarty Street to past the Dunklin Street intersection.

If the bill is passed, the city would be able to use up to about $94,000 of MoDOT grant funds and about $18,700 from the city’s half-cent sales tax for the study once an engineering firm is selected.

Bange said there are multiple spots along that stretch of road that present safety issues, such as a lack of traffic control at the interchange on both sides of the highway, as well as poor sight lines and pedestrian safety concerns at the Dunklin Street intersection.

If approved, the study will look at solutions for these problems.

Bange said possible solutions may include six-leg roundabouts on either side of the interchange, a roundabout at the Dunklin Street intersection or traffic signals.

But each of those options come with a set of challenges.

“It’s really why we’re pushing the study is because there are some options and (we) don’t really know exactly which ones are the best ones to pursue at this point,” Bange said.

The city has set aside about $1.2 million from the half-cent sales tax for improvements at the interchange.

However, the city may need more funding and it could be several years before crews start any work on a project, according to Bange.

The City Council is set to vote on the funding agreement at its next meeting on June 19.