Should Missouri add truck lanes to I-70 between KC and StL? (Kansas City: house, law)

[kcmo]

MoDOT looks into truck lanes on I-70 - Independence, MO - The Examiner

I don't think it's really needed. If we just widen 70 to six lanes that would be enough.

The biggest thing that bugs me about the idea is that I-70 needs to be improved in KC and it will be silly to have an 8 lane interstate in the rural areas and and metro St Louis and the old run down six lane 1-70 in the KC area.

[stepka]

I do think it's needed--that is an extremely dangerous stretch of highway and it's very crowded sometimes. I got into a horrible car accident one night--well it could have been--none of us were hurt, but that was only thru God's grace. A truck sideswiped us on a rainy night and we spun around several times in rush hour traffic and somehow missed everyone, but then we flew across the deep median and came up on the other side going the wrong way again. I barely was able to steer the car back into the median to get away from oncoming traffic. The trucker never stopped. When highway patrol showed up, he said that it happens a lot and we were the lucky ones.

[northbound74]

They need to do something with it. Not sure what the answer is.
I rarely go to St. Louis anymore, but when I go to central Missouri, I like to take back roads like FF as far as I can take them. If I just need to go to Illinois and beyond, I'll take something like 24 hwy. I endure I-70 when I have to go to St. Louis, but I hate having to do it.

[OA 5599]

I agree that it does need to be updated. I'm not sure if additional truck lanes are the answer though, they could just make it 6 lanes and have a law where trucks are prohibited in the leftmost lane. Although I-35 is like that through this part of Texas and it can still be very congested at times.

[DeanMoore]

if you are going to do the dirtwork, you might as well make it 8 lanes everywhere. ban trucks on the two left lanes, and raise the limit on the left-most lane. the biggest issue I see here in MO, is people who park in the fast lane, and don't allow passing, causing others to work around, and that causes accidents and slowdowns.

two lane highways are even worse. we have great wide shoulders, and great roads, but nobody yields when they are putting along below the limit. tractors are no big deal, they are uncommon on major roads, and generally do stay to the right. we do have a law that after 4-6 cars back up behind someone, they are required to pull over, but few people know about it, and its rarely enforced. when you are stuck behind some mini-truck towing a 28 ft house boat down 160 all the way from Springfield to Branson west, people begin to make dangerous and stupid decisions within the first few miles.

[luzianne]

I have heard before that I-70 between Kansas City and St. Louis is the most dangerous stretch of highway in the nation. I don't know where exactly I heard it, don't know if it's really true, but I always have that in mind when I travel between KC and St. Louis. I was driving through St. Louis to Kansas City (traveling back from Talladega) the night Mel Carnahan's plane crashed near St. Louis. There was a dense fog that night - no wonder his plane crashed. I couldn't see any distance in front of me at all and I was getting disoriented, thinking lights I saw in front of me were far, far in the distance when actually they were right in front of me, and only realized it when my husband said "do you see those tail lights?" It was very strange and driving I-70 through St. Louis to Kansas City was nerve wracking. Of course, dense fog is an extreme condition but I'm always extremely cautious on that stretch of road.

[GraniteStater]

The bottom line is that they need to do an in-depth engineering study of the I-70 corridor in question and then figure out the economically viable option to take. I do think that truck lanes would be an enormous expense, and would not be asthetically pleasing. I don't think anyone likes driving on 8-10 lane highways in a sea of concrete. Whenever I hear truck lanes I think of the NAFTA Superhighway unfortunately.

[smellykat]

02/22/2009 - Truck lanes pick up speed - STLtoday.com (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/BC19F81F505BACAB862575640009E2E2?OpenDocument - broken link)

[stepka]

Originally Posted by luzianne

I have heard before that I-70 between Kansas City and St. Louis is the most dangerous stretch of highway in the nation. I don't know where exactly I heard it, don't know if it's really true, but I always have that in mind when I travel between KC and St. Louis.

Yes I heard it too--the highway patrolman who came to investigate our accident told me that and they're almost always hit and run and they almost never catch them, and the accidents are often fatal. Yes, they definitely need a study.

[12GO]

Not only does I-70 need this, so does I-44 ! I 'd also like to see this done on I-55 from Cape G up to st.louis. Why? Because it would be far safer for both cars and big rigs! BTW, studies on it any farther would just be a waste as it is clear these lanes are needed.