Seven miles of Improve I-70 Project between Columbia and Kingdom City completed
Haley Swaino
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Missouri Department of Transportation on Monday cut the ribbon on its first seven miles of completed pavement on Interstate 70 in the Improve I-70 project.
The project seeks to make I-70 a three-lane highway across the entire state. This first portion focuses on the road from Columbia to Kingdom City.
Barriers will be removed from the completed stretch at Route J (mile marker 137) to Route M (mile marker 144) by the end of the week, Brandy Broeckling with construction company Millstone Weber said.
“We have a more efficient, safer piece of piece of infrastructure,” MoDOT Director Ed Hassinger said at Monday’s ribbon cutting. “We are standing on brand new pavement, a little over a year from when we broke ground up at the Drury Inn. And that is just incredible progress.”
State Rep. Kathy Steinhoff (D-Columbia) called the moment historic.
“I mean, we’ve been planning for I-70 for years,” Steinhoff said. “This is going to make a huge difference. It’s going to help us get to places on time, but it’s also going to help everyone be safe.”
The portion of interstate between Columbia and Kingdom City is expected to be completed in late 2027, MoDOT said.
“The main focus of the project was to add the third lane in each direction on I-70. All three lanes will be new concrete pavement, along with the new 12-foot concrete shoulder,” Broeckling said. “The Route 54 interchange will be completely reconstructed. There’s also numerous changes at the U.S. 63 interchange, which you can see we have all been working on for the past year. And in between there are several other bridges and box culverts that will be getting replaced as well.”
The overall Improve I-70 program is expected to be complete in late 2030.