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Senator Kit Bond is scheduled to be at a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday afternoon in Polk County. MoDOT officials, along with Greene and Polk County leaders, will join Bond in celebrating the completion of new northbound lanes on Highway 13. KSMU’s Ryan Welch reports.
Highway 13’s northbound lanes running from Greene to Polk County have long been dubbed “Bloody 13” because of their poor visibility and dangerous curves and hills. This stretch of the road sees four times the number of accidents than any other part of the highway, according to transportation officials.
The Missouri Department of Transportation, in an effort to make this section of the road safer, has made the road straighter with more gradually sloped hills.MoDOT spokesperson Bob Edwards says the project came in two stages. The seven and a half mile stretch in southern Polk County that was just completed is the second part of the project. He says MoDOT finished a five and a half mile portion of the road in northern Greene County last year.
“We knew there was a problem along this road. We didn’t have the money to do anything about it, especially as we were continuing to four-lane the highway between Springfield and Kansas City. Fortunately, money became available through Senator Bond a couple years ago and we were able to use this money to relocate that section of the northbound lanes, and we think that’ll make a huge difference in safety,” Edwards said.
Senator Bond is a ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the nation’s transportation programs. $20 million of federal funds went toward the project.
For KSMU News, I’m Ryan Welch.
