St. Charles-based firm gets first Interstate 70 improvement contract
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
A builder with contracts in states from the Southeast to the Southwest, including several in Missouri, will build the first phase of an expanded Interstate 70.
Construction firm Millstone Weber, headquartered in St. Charles, Missouri, will build the expanded I-70 from Columbia to Kingdom City for $405 million. The Jacobs design firm will work with Millstone Weber, the Missouri Department of Transportation said in a news release.
The project includes new lanes, new inside and outside shoulders and improved interchange designs at Highway 63 in Columbia and Highway 54 in Kingdom City. The proposal includes two new interchanges and four new roundabouts, the release says. The Highway 54 project includes two new bridges.
Two lanes of travel will be open in each direction at peak travel times, MoDOT says.
The initial I-70 expansion project will add a third lane in each direction of the 20-mile stretch of I-70 between Highway 63 in Columbia and Highway 54 in Kingdom City.
During a budget briefing, the governor's staff said construction on this stretch of I-70 is expected to start later this year.
A total of $2.8 billion was allocated in fiscal 2024 to build a third lane on I-70 across the entire state. This is more than Gov. Mike Parson's original proposal, which only included a third lane near St. Louis, Kansas City and in the Columbia area. The total project is about 200 miles. The whole project is expected to be completed by 2027, according to MoDOT.
Public information meetings about the first phase of the project are expected in the spring.
