Gans Road project to be completed in 2008

A $14.4 million project that includes building a new diamond interchange at Gans Road and U.S. 63 in southeast Columbia is expected to be completed by the end of 2008 upon final approval by the Missouri Department of Transportation.

The interchange will extend Gans Road to the west as well as to the east to Rolling Hills Road. Columbia’s chief engineer, David Nichols, said the new interchange will go over U.S. 63 north of Gans Creek because the city did not want to build directly over the creek.

“An interchange at that location has been discussed for a long, long time,” Nichols said.

The project will also include the relocation of Lenoir Street east of U.S. 63 and Ponderosa Street west of the highway.

Nichols said most of the bureaucratic hurdles have been cleared. The next steps are to hold a public hearing and get final plans for building and funding the interchange approved by the Transportation Department.

At its Jan. 16 meeting, the Columbia City Council scheduled a public hearing for Feb. 19. District 5 Engineer Roger Schwartze said the meeting will give the public an opportunity to hear plans for the project, including details on the roads, ramps, sidewalks and medians. He also noted that Transportation Department officials plan to hold a meeting in March to answer any lingering public questions. Nichols added that the city’s hearing will probably provide maps of the area and cross-sections of the new roads.

“I guess it’ll be kind of background of what is being proposed, how it’s going to get there and what needs to be done to move it forward,” he said.

Nichols said the relocation of Lenoir Street could begin this spring and be finished by September.

Construction on Gans Road and Ponderosa Street, as well as the interchange itself, should begin this summer. Nichols said the interchange could take up to 18 months to complete.

“Obviously this is something important for the city of Columbia because this would set up Gans Road to be the next major arterial road going to the east,” Schwartze said.

The Discovery Ridge research park planned Gans Road project to be done in 2008 for MU’s South Farm would also benefit from the proposed interchange. John Gardner, vice president of Discovery Ridge, said he is excited about all the possibilities in the area. He cautioned, however, that the extension of Gans Road to Rolling Hills Road could be delayed a year or two as the city and state wait for federal money.

“If the interchange wouldn’t have happened, Discovery Ridge wouldn’t have unfolded the way it did,” Gardner said.

The area could be buzzing with activity in just a few years. Along with the research park, there are plans for a Catholic high school nearby and potentially a new public school.

Development is also expected to begin on the former Philips tract, now known as the Bristol Lake development, to the west of the interchange. That property will also include a new city park that officials hope will become a regional recreation area. Developer Elvin Sapp bought the Philips property a few years ago and had it annexed into the city for a mixed-use development that will feature residential, commercial and office areas. Sapp sold some of the land to Jose and Jay Lindner of Forum Development, who plan to put in some commercial and retail stores to complement the research park and residential area.

Gardner said the research park originally wanted to prevent Gans Road from going through South Farm but that proved infeasible. As a result, South Farm has already taken down some buildings, and Gardner said others will have to be moved before the new road is put in. He expects the total relocation cost to be around $1 million.

The construction of Discovery Ridge, which includes the new ABC Labs and the Research and Animal Diagnostic Labs, includes preliminary infrastructure costs of about $2.5 million.

“The ABC building has already started construction, and bids just came in for the RADIL building,” Gardner said “It is currently anticipated that it could reach the MU curators meeting for final approval in April.”

Gardner said the ABC building will cover about 90,000 square feet and cost between $16 million and $18 million. The RADIL structure will cover 50,000 square feet with a projected cost of $15 million.

Although the plan for the interchange seems well on its way to fruition, it does have its opponents. Ken Midkiff, conservation chairman for the local chapter of the Sierra Club, has been fighting against it and thinks Gans Creek will be contaminated by sediment from the construction.

“It would be a real concern if that stream were contaminated,” he said, “because it goes through Rock Bridge State Park just a couple of miles (to the southeast), and it’s a state resource.”

The Sierra Club has been at odds with city officials since they annexed the Philips farm in 2004. Midkiff, however, said that the club’s complaints have been unproductive and that his group has essentially given up on trying to block the construction through the City Council.

“We testified at all of the hearings before the City Council,” he said. “We’ve done just about everything we can to prevent this from happening, and we’ve failed to do it. There’s only one person who’s going to benefit from this interchange, and his last name is Sapp.”

Both Nichols and Gardner, however, said they are taking steps to ensure minimal damage to the environment.

Neither expects problems.

“We have a pretty extensive erosion-control plan that controls runoff (into Gans Creek),” Nichols said.

Gardner added that construction of the interchange and the new research park should be environmentally sound. Engineers have also included an extensive plan to control storm-water drainage on the environmentally sensitive clay-pan soil in the area.

The construction at Discovery Ridge should be done before the interchange is finished, so traffic could be busy on the frontage road leading to the park. But Gardner sees the research park and the entire area surrounding the interchange as well worth the $3.2 million contribution expected to come from Columbia taxpayers.

“The future for any town, Columbia included, are jobs that you can’t take away and are based on intellectual assets,” Gardner said, “and there’s no better intellectual asset than the university itself. It’s a logical, forward-thinking, economic development strategy.”