By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A public hearing will be held Thursday by the Missouri Department of Transportation on the final plans regarding the I-229 double decker bridge.
District design engineer Shannon Kusilek says the meeting is being held to inform the public about the current plan for I-229.
"Letting folks know how we got there, some of the options we may have looked at, and why we came up with the solution that we have," Kusilek tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
The current preferred alternative plan is to remove the double decker bridge and move to a four-lane road in the same location.
Kusilek says there's been no surprising reaction to the plan, but is aware some see it as controversial
"There's people who do like the structure, and like the way it is, but then there's the business community and others that would like to see it come down to open up the riverfront, so we've had to work through all those things, and that's why it's taken so long partially," Kusilek explains.
"Because we've had to work with the city and they actually threw out their own alternative plan at one point that we looked at before but didn't consider because of environmental issues, we've had to work through a lot of things."
Kusilek says the meeting on Thursday will give residents an opportunity to learn about the plan
"Just tables and different things throughout, of how we developed our plan, so there will be places to get information on that," Kusilek says. "But at the end we do have a place for people to give their comments and we're going to take the comments and then once the public meeting is done, the study's not completely over yet, we would take all our comments and summarize them and send them with the request for a record of decision."
Which will be sent to the Federal Highway Administration where they will look and verify that there are no red flags to deter from the plan.
The meeting will be held on Thursday at the Remington Nature Center from 4 to 6pm.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.