ST. LOUIS - Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed bills back in June that will include a $2.8 billion plan to expand Interstate 70 from suburban St. Louis to suburban Kansas City to three lanes.
In anticipation for the expansion, the Missouri Department of Transportation will host several open houses throughout the state of Missouri and online the plans with the first public input sessions set to begin next week.
Eric Kopinski, Program Director for the Improve I-70 project, told Total Information A.M. when he appeared on the show Thursday that while the third lane will be the biggest news from the expansion, there could be even more improvements in the project, according to Kopinski.
"We're hopeful and confident that we can get alot of extra improvements in addition to the third lane(on interstate 70)," said Kopinski, "But we know we can't get it all, so we're really taking a deep engineering dive right now to see what are the priorities."
Kopinski highlights the Wentzville-area of I-70 as one of the areas where there's going to be quite some focus of during the project.
"(Wentzville) is very tight and constricted through there, we will be improving that with this project," said Kopinski, "Adding that third lane for everyone to travel and it will make it safer. That will be the priority as we kind of make our way through the state."
Kopinski says public input on the project would help MoDOT alot when it comes to figuring out situations like when is it the right time to shut down lanes.
"I thinks what's really important for us is that we really want to hear from the public and what their expectations and concerns," said Kopinski
The first public meeting in the St. Louis-area about I-70 will take place on Aug. 28th at Wentzville's City Hall from 4-6 p.m.