Tuesday Meeting to Discuss Route 109 Repair

An open-house style public meeting will be held today from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at in Wildwood by Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) officials to provide a forum for sharing details about a proposed major repair to a section of Missouri Route 109.

Because no formal presentations are planned during the public meeting, participants may attend at any time during the three hours designated.

Up until yesterday, the MoDOT team planned to close the highway this summer between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  Ironically and coincidentally, in the targeted section of the highway forced officials to divert traffic, place barriers around the sliding pavement and repaint temporary lanes on the highway.

The affected section of highway is 1.1 miles south of the Highway 100/State Route 109 intersection.

Construction plans will be available at the meeting, and attendees can discuss the project's impacts with MoDOT engineers. Additionally, meeting participants can submit comments about the plans, the schedule, and possible effects to the community, said MoDOT spokesman Andrew Gates.

When the highway is closed, drivers will be able to detour around the closure using Old State Road and Manchester Road, which is the same detour used last year during the bridge replacement at Route 109 and Woods Road.

At the March 3 , several business owners voiced concern about the highway being shut down again, citing how much business they lost this past summer due to customers thinking that Route 109 was not operational even near the College Avenue business district.

John Rooney Jr., head of E-404 Companies and the retirement community, said business at the Meadows was off by 80 percent when Route 109 was closed last year.  "We didn't get signage that allowed people to know we were still open.  We need some other means of communicating," said Rooney.  "Would it be possible to at least get a reader board?"

Mike Gavosto, district vice president of the , said the organization's summer camps were down by $110,000 last year, as a result. 

Rooney said while he realizes it may be easier for the road crew to completely shut down the highway, it "just doesn't work for surrounding businesses."