I-70 Continues to play vital role in economy

Although most people know how important education has been to the growth of this city throughout its history, Columbia’s growth has also been closely tied to transportation, and that is no different today.

Columbia is blessed with a crossroads of two significant highways. Lots of other cities don’t have both an interstate and a major U.S. highway, and since the Interstate Highway System began in the 1950s, the more successful cities have been located on the “I’s,” the interstates. When you build one, new buildings usually follow, especially hotels and restaurants, at the interchanges.

Interstate 70 from Kansas City to St. Louis is a major east-west highway across our state that brings commerce to and through Columbia. I-70 is of vital importance to our economy; any changes to it affect many businesses and people’s lives.

Constructed between 1956 and 1965, the road is both the city’s most important connection to the outside world and a major conduit for local east-west traffic through the city. As the highway is improved in the near future, it will retain these same functions, and it is important that the final plan approved by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) retain good direct access from city streets to the interstate. People do not want to have to travel through too many traffic signals to reach I-70.

The latest completed study projects traffic volume to double by 2030, requiring four lanes in each direction from Old Highway 40 to Route Z. At present, the road awaits funding for significant changes that will substantially affect Columbia’s future in several ways. The plan calls for I-70 to accommodate existing and future traffic volumes, including freight and general inter- and intrastate travel. It also calls for improving the existing design, local roadway network and safety features.

I-70 is merely the latest incarnation of the cross-state thoroughfare to pass through Columbia and shape our city. Originally located about seven miles north of Columbia, in 1822 the Boonslick Road was relocated to pass through Columbia on what is now Broadway, making Columbia the retail center for an extended trade area, and the city is still the economic hub of our region today. Columbia soon became the halfway point stop for stagecoaches traveling between Kansas City and St. Louis.

The original U.S. Highway 40 also passed along Broadway through the center of Columbia’s business district until it was relocated several blocks north of Broadway to what was then the urban fringe. Now we call it Business Loop 70.

Highway 40 was constructed on a rather narrow right of way with uncontrolled access. Commercial development quickly grew along the road and became extensive, bringing increased traffic congestion and accidents. In 1948, Highway 40 was widened and resurfaced, and even after I-70 was under construction a decade later, Highway 40 was again widened and a median installed to reduce accidents. This improvement by the Missouri Highway Department generated substantial local debate.

After the new Interstate Highway System was approved by Congress in 1956, Columbia’s portion of the new I-70 was one of the first out-state segments to be built. It consisted of 7.3 miles of dual-lane limited access highway beginning near Conley Lane eastward to about 2.6 miles east of the city limits. It was considered a bypass at the time, but you’d never know it now. Over time, the city grew and enveloped the highway, making it necessary today to improve the highway, create a new bypass, or both.
Construction began in the summer of 1957, and I-70 was opened to traffic in 1958. By today’s rules, the interchanges are spaced too closely together, so more interchanges were approved for Columbia than would ever be approved today, but I believe the extra exits have been a real plus for our city. Five interchanges were constructed within the city limits, with the Conley Lane interchange on the west the last one built. Conley Lane later became Stadium Boulevard, a major expressway from I-70 to Highway 63, which should be continued eastward to meet I-70.

When the city updated its 1935 master plan in the mid-1960s, a Business Loop 70 committee was formed with its recommendations included in reports prepared by the City of Columbia’s consultant, Hare and Hare of Kansas City. At that time, I was Public Works director and acting planning director, responsible for working with the consultant and committees.

About 100 business establishments were located on the road between Conley Lane and the eastern city limits, three between Conley and West Boulevard, which no longer had direct access to Highway 40. Although there was an increase in traffic on the re-christened Business Loop 70, which businesses welcomed, land-use changes began to occur as business in some establishments began to decline.

For instance, Columbia’s first shopping mall, the Parkade Shopping Center, was constructed along the north side of the Business Loop between West Boulevard and Garth Avenue, where a drive-in movie theater had been located. It began to take away business from downtown. I recall discussions with future Columbia Mayor Herb Jeans, the developer, over traffic concerns, such as the number of driveways, and storm water concerns. I wanted a storm water pipe to be installed around the building rather than under the building because corrugated water pipe can rust and collapse unless it is encased in concrete, and it would be difficult to replace under the shopping center.

Jeans insisted on more driveways, which the Highway Department approved, but they wound up causing more accidents. He then requested a traffic signal for the driveway that led most directly to the neighboring grocery store. The Highway Department did not approve this signal, but instead located one at Parkade Boulevard on the east side of the shopping center, a street that was severed on the north by I-70. The final result was that the traffic signal was never installed at the driveway by the Highway Department, and a large storm water pipe remains under the building, although it is encased in concrete.

I recall joking with Herb Jeans that his regional shopping center, as he termed it, was really a neighborhood center. He didn’t like my suggestion that the center would have problems when a regional mall was built and pointed to the center’s financial success as proof of its sustainability.

My vision of the center becoming a major service center for federal, state and local government offices did not materialize; instead, the state constructed a large new office building on Vandiver Street. I still believe Parkade would have performed that function well, and it also would have been a good location for the senior citizen center that eventually was built farther east on the Business Loop.

This is the way a city often grows, with one major thoroughfare replacing another as the fringe of the urbanizing area moves farther away from the city center. At first, there is not enough traffic, then it is ideal, and then you have congestion. So even if it doesn’t happen soon, eventually some sort of bypass to the north may be necessary.

When Highway 40 moved north, it was important to Columbia to improve Broadway. Similarly, it needs to continue the council’s efforts to improve the Business Loop.

The city worked closely with MODOT staff and I-70 consultants during their studies for the improvement of I-70. In addition, the council approved a separate economic study, Assessing the Economic Consequences of Widening I-70 for the City of Columbia, which provided new information to the city and MODOT. The city report shows that 51 businesses will need to relocate and 873 full-time jobs will be lost, along with a substantial loss of sales tax revenue, depending on how many businesses can relocate inside the city limits. If the businesses locate outside of the city, we lose the sales tax revenue.

One good alternative for MODOT to consider, for financial reasons, would be to widen I-70 to three lanes through Columbia in each direction and redesign interchanges with an outer roadway system that might be good for about 20 years.

Regardless of the choice made, the same dance will continue, as it has throughout our history, whether you call the main highway the Boonslick Trail or the new Interstate 70. Travelers want to move through to their destination, and businesses try to entice them to stop and spend their money. It is important that the stagecoach still stops in our city.