From the Roundtable: Providence Road bridge ‘jumper’ highlights interstate expansion issues
While others continue to talk about the “jumper” who almost leapt off the Providence Road pedestrian bridge a fortnight ago, it’s time for business and commercial interests to have their say in the matter. Closing Interstate 70 for ninety minutes, with the consequent late-morning gridlock that enveloped Columbia, should sober us to the inadequacies of the road network. Steps must be taken to minimize any event that would close this major traffic artery.
It goes without saying that the Columbia Police Department and all other participating agencies receive our unstinting praise for the way they handled the situation. So one of the Taser shots didn’t work out; how would you have handled this tense situation that hot, steamy Friday morning? The anti-Taser crowd sees a “gotcha” here because the controversial device didn’t work the first time, but what would they have done as the minutes ticked by while tens of thousands of us were inconvenienced with the potential of being put in harms’ way.
Closing down a highway in both directions doesn’t happen very often, but I remember a tanker truck explosion in May 1982, as traffic was diverted across town via the Business Loop 70 for the better part of a day. The chaos that day may have reminded some of us of pre-Loop days when the road was plain old Highway 40. If there’s anything positive about the jumper’s activities, he inadvertently underscored the national significance of Interstate 70 by ascending the pedestrian bridge with an act that threw rocks in the gears of this important route.
How many people did he inconvenience? We know the Interstate 70 traffic count through town is an impressive number — 70,000 vehicles per day according to one estimate — because many of us use those four lanes like a local street to save time and the angst of dealing with traffic lights and stop signs.
From the perspective of business and commerce, the damages are untold and probably immeasurable but tying a knot in this particular interstate highway whenever it happens is going to have consequences.
The jumper certainly amplified my case for alternative interstate highway routings across Greater Columbia. Here’s my prayer that those who have the most to say about highway routing and development — CATSO in particular — start paying closer attention to what I’ve been preaching over the past couple of years.
Interstate 70 is simply too important and too strategic for widening along its current course, even if additional truck lanes are added. While I believe establishing additional separated truck lanes is a good idea, the overarching concern involves how much real estate must be appropriated for the considerably wider right of way the refurbished highway will require. The acquisition and condemnation costs have surely skyrocketed to a stratospherically unimaginable number.
Be the currently aligned Interstate 70 a six or eight lane road, it is simply foolhardy to continue to depend on this one highway for unimpeded traffic flow knowing that a single incident could paralyze transportation with potential consequences nationwide.
I have seemed almost alone in preaching for an interstate highway bypass around Columbia, as well as considering other alternatives. Without sounding too arrogant about it, I know the future transportation welfare of this region will eventually prove me correct in proposing a new routing or two.
While I have been arguing for a bypass around the city’s northern periphery, I would also propose establishing a trans-state, inter-modal transit corridor between St. Louis and Kansas City that would integrate a high-speed multiple tracks TGV-type rail line with a multilane highway principally dedicated to trucks and other commercial vehicles. There would be a new bridge across the Missouri River while a road would cross south-Central Boone County near Columbia Regional Airport with rail and highway spurs built to Columbia and Jefferson City.
With a salute to MoDOT for doing what they’ve done so far, it’s generally known there aren’t the funds for much in the way of future transportation needs. The silence this election year by the various political candidates relative to transportation issues is stunning, though not unexpected.
Yet surely, there has to be some money left over in the kitty to better secure the bridges that cross Interstate 70. Chain link fencing and razor wire isn’t very pretty to look at, but neither is the idea of being dead-stopped in traffic because someone wanted to end their life by taking a flying leap on to the lanes below because they were able to gain access to a bridge.
Al Germond is the host of the “Columbia Business Times Sunday Morning Roundtable” every Sunday at 8:15 a.m. on kfru. He can be reached at [email protected].