LEE’S SUMMIT – Next month MoDOT Kansas City launches the next phase of the I-470 bridge project and they are estimating traffic impacts will be extreme. To help traffic combat construction fatigue, KC Scout is installing a specialty hybrid traffic sign that will alert motorists headed through the project how long they can expect to be delayed if they continue along their current route.
KC Scout will begin installing and testing the hybrid sign this week to prepare for the project start next month. It will be located along northbound I-470 just before the Strother Road interchange. There is a traditional KC Scout message board north of Woods Chapel that will be providing travel times headed into the work zone. In addition, there will be five smaller changeable message sign boards along northbound I-470 that will warn motorists of stopped traffic up ahead and reminders to use the zipper merge as they approach the work zone.
“With all of the nearby lakes, there are limited local alternate routes along this segment of I-470 near the Little Blue River and 40 Highway. When traveling northbound or southbound in eastern Jackson County, KC Scout staff members are urging motorists to use I-435 to the west and 7 Highway to the east,” said KC Scout Project Manager Mark Sommerhauser. “If motorists do not choose alternate routes, the real-time KC Scout travel-time signs may be regularly posting travel times in excess of 50 minutes to only travel five miles along northbound and/or southbound I-470.”
The MoDOT project includes essential bridge repairs at the I-470/Route 291 and I-70 interchange and will begin in mid-August. Crews will reduce I-470 to ONE LANE in both directions from 39th Street in Independence, MO to the Little Blue River just south of US 40. The lane closures will be accompanied by various loop ramp closures to and from I-70. This work zone will have MAJOR impacts to traffic and is the final phase of the extensive I-470 bridge rehabilitation project.
KC Scout is Kansas City's bi-state traffic management system, jointly operated and funded by the Kansas and Missouri Departments of Transportation, designed to lessen traffic jams by improving rush-hour speeds, increasing safety by decreasing the number of rush-hour accidents and improving emergency response to traffic situations by clearing incidents quickly and safely. Scout manages traffic on more than 300 miles of continuous freeways in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. Learn more about KC Scout at http://www.kcscout.net. Follow KC Scout on twitter at twitter.com/kansascityscout, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KansasCityScout.