By MATT PIKE
The City of St. Joseph and the Missouri Department of Transportation are continuing to work collaboratively on the future reconstruction of the Interstate 229 double decker bridge.
St. Joseph city staff and elected officials were recently invited to review MoDOT’s current proposal, which remains in the planning stages and is expected to be presented to the Missouri Highway Commission for consideration. The proposal would de-designate the current interstate corridor as a four-lane, mostly at-grade roadway, replacing the existing elevated double-decker bridges downtown while generally following the current roadway footprint.
City officials state that they recognize the importance of addressing the aging infrastructure with the double decker bridge. The city also supports MoDOT’s goal of improving long-term safety and infrastructure reliability, as well as the agency’s interest in pursuing a collaborative design-build approach. This process would establish goals and objectives for the project while allowing design firms to develop innovative solutions to meet them. The Missouri Highway Commission will ultimately determine whether to proceed with the design-build concept.
An area of particular focus for city officials regards the impact on downtown accessibility and economic development. The existing interstate currently includes four access points connecting motorists directly to downtown. Under the current concept being reviewed, those downtown entrances and exits would be removed and access to downtown would instead occur from interchanges near St. Joseph Avenue to the north and Fourth Street to the south, requiring traffic to travel on two-lane city streets to reach downtown destinations.
The City believes maintaining direct access into and out of downtown St. Joseph is vital to supporting existing businesses, encouraging continued investment and ensuring long-term economic growth in the city’s urban core.
“We support MoDOT’s efforts to modernize this important transportation corridor and agree that the community needs a safe, reliable roadway that will serve St. Joseph well into the future,” City Manager Mike Schumacher says in a news release from the city. “We also recognize that direct access to downtown is critical to the success of our businesses, restaurants, entertainment venues and future development opportunities and strongly hope to see that added to the state’s plans for this project as they continue to evolve.”
In addition to economic concerns, city officials are also evaluating the potential transportation impacts associated with rerouting an estimated 9,000 vehicles per day, including heavy truck traffic, onto existing two-lane city streets if access to the new roadway is only to the north and south of downtown. Officials are concerned this could place additional strain on local infrastructure and create new traffic challenges in surrounding neighborhoods and business districts. Because the project involves transitioning from an elevated interstate to an at-grade roadway, city leaders understand there are significant engineering complexities, including existing rail lines and utility infrastructure currently bypassed by the elevated structure.
The city remains committed to working with MoDOT to identify practical and innovative solutions that balance safety, infrastructure needs and downtown accessibility.
“Downtown access is not simply a transportation issue, it is also an economic development issue,” Schumacher says. “Maintaining convenient entrance and exit points into the downtown area is essential to supporting existing businesses, attracting new investment and ensuring long-term prosperity for the entire community.”
Stakeholders and members of the public will have opportunities to provide input on the proposal during MoDOT meetings expected later this summer. The project is currently estimated at approximately $120 million, with construction proposed to begin in 2028. Any de-designation of Interstate 229 would require approval by the U.S. Congress.
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