North Callaway firefighters describe struggles with I-70 road construction
Olivia Hayes
CALLAWAY COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)
North Callaway Fire Protection District tells ABC 17 News that accessibility and clean up continue to be an issue for them when responding to accidents near construction zones on Interstate 70.
“What we usually end up having to do is kind of park and walk. We’re doing a lot of climbing over the barricades,” North Callaway Fire Protection District Chief Matt Walton said.
Work is being done for a portion of the Improve I-70 Project, which aims to make the interstate a three-lane highway across the entire state.
According to information from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, at least three crashes have occurred in a stretch of I-70 under construction since concrete barriers were placed along the roadway west of Kingdom City in early May. The most recent crash occurred near Millersburg on Thursday morning.
Walton explained that sometimes access can get so challenging they need to bring in outside help.
“We also have an automatic mutual aid with Millersburg Fire to come up. So that way they can approach from one direction, we can approach from the other, to try to cover the incident from two different sides to gain best access,” Walton said.
Other responding agencies told ABC 17 News they haven’t had much trouble working around the construction.
“The workaround that we have seems to be working just fine sometimes the traffic is completely blocked,” MSHP spokesman Kyle Green said. “We may have to come down a, you know, an on ramp the wrong direction or an exit ramp down the wrong direction and work our way backwards, but ultimately, using the outer roads, is a preferred method.”
Charles Anderson, Chief of Callaway County Emergency Medical Services, said his crews also utilize the outer roads. However, he said they were already doing that consistently before the construction started, so they haven’t had many issues.
Walton said his team doesn’t have easy access to outer roads.
“We did not have outer a road access this morning,” he said. “Our construction side is actually not where we have a lot of out of outer road access.”
Total completion of the Missouri Department of Transportations I-70 Improvement Project is expected by the end of 2030. Construction of the portion between Columbia and Kingdom City is expected to be completed by late 2027.