The James River Freeway Expansion Project is complete

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – The long-awaited expansion of the James River Freeway is complete, opening new roads for motorists.

MoDOT officials say the hot temperatures we experienced helped move this project forward without delays. For the past four years, the James River Freeway has been a zone of continuous construction. Crews first began widening the highway near National Avenue to six lanes.

The next phase was work between the National and the Kansas Expressway.

“You have three lanes in each direction, which is a big plus, plus the Barry wall for safety. So it’s a huge improvement for Springfield here on the south side,” said Brad Gripka, MoDOT resident engineer.

The project was expected to be completed by Nov. 1, and thanks to warm temperatures, crews were able to do so.

“The lack of rain is probably not what everyone wanted, but it helped us a lot with this project to get everything done on time and on budget,” he said.

Modot executives tell me the weather also played a role in other projects around the city…including the Kansas Expressway pedestrian project.

Hripka says, “We resurfaced it and also made our ADA improvements, also improving the intersection. So that’s one of our big projects that we were able to complete as well.”

Department of Transport and Communications officials say they will have final clean-up and patching tonight, which will include moving work zones with reduced speed limits.

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