Route K closed for intersection construction

Motorists used to driving along Route K to visit Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area and other riverside locales are now finding a landscape reminiscent of a child’s sandbox, with rolling mounds of dirt and bright yellow construction trucks.

Roughly 1,800 feet of road between Seminole Court and Mount Celestial Road will be closed until Aug. 12 so crews can level a hill to improve the sight-stopping distance before construction begins on a new intersection with Scott Boulevard.

“Sight-stopping distance is a variable saying that we know if the car is driving at a certain speed it takes them so long to stop,” said resident engineer Charles Sullivan of the Missouri Department of Transportation. “It’s like the numbers they give you when you learn to drive,” Sullivan said, adding that hills make dangerous points for new intersections.

He said the work is too dangerous to have one lane of the road remain open. The closure also allows crews to work more quickly.

C.L. Richardson Construction Co. is doing the work, which includes adding a drainage system.

The recent closure has surprised some motorists, said Chelsea Riggs, an employee of Leatherwood Hills General Store. She estimated that 20 people have asked her about the closure. The store, which doubles as a Conoco gas station, is located two miles before the road closure.

“People complain that it’s a hassle and ask how to get around it,” Riggs said. She tells people to take Old Plank Road to Warren School Road and then make a right on Mount Celestial Road. But that involves slow driving on gravel roads.

Boone County Fire Protection District Station 8 is also on Route K, but the staff was informed of the closure in advance.

“We pre-planned to offset that area by having a dual response with Station 14,” said district Capt. John Gordon Jr.

Gordon offered another route for motorists to get around the closure: Take Nifong Boulevard west to Scott, then head south to Route KK, which joins with Route K near the river.

The McBaine Water Treatment Plant, located south of the closed section of road, hasn’t had much of a problem with the closures either.

“People are having trouble remembering it’s closed and having to backtrack a little, but all our deliveries are getting here so it hasn’t been a problem,” manager Barry Kirchhoff said. He added that most employees come down Scott Boulevard to Route KK.

Leveling the road for the intersection is an initial step in extending Scott Boulevard to Routes K and KK. The project is considered so vital by the city, county and state that each has agreed to pay a portion of the $837,529 price tag for the intersection.

David Nichols, chief engineer with the Public Works Department, said the city is paying “because they realize it had always been identified on the city’s major roadway plan.”