OVERPASS OPEN

Z-I-Z! Z-E-R! In a ceremonial first crossing Friday morning, May 1 – students from West Plains R-VII shouted their school pride from the windows of a yellow school bus. 

 

And with that, the long-awaited Independence Dr. overpass was open to traffic. More ceremonial crossings followed, parading in both directions over the new bridges: fire trucks, city transit shuttles, police and sheriff’s department vehicles, and Howell-Oregon Electric Co-op vehicles. 

 

After 18 months of detours, the road was open as of approximately 9:30 a.m. The overpass is on Independence Dr. and spans both Howell Creek and the BNSF railway. 

 

With more than five years in planning and funding stages behind the scenes, the project was initially a solution to a safety concern. With the overpass open, first responders and law enforcement will never again be separated from an emergency by a railroad crossing. The urgency of obstacle-free egress across the city became very clear when the city experienced historic flooding in 2017. 

 

The safety angle helped the city stand out in the crowd of federal and state-level appropriations requests. 

 

In remarks Friday morning, West Plains mayor Mike Topliff called the overpass, “one of the most significant investments in infrastructure,” in the city’s history. He said it is, “a symbol of progress and resilience.”

Initially projected to cost $9.5 million, there is nearly $10 million in the overpass alone, and the electrical work cost about $500,000 city officials said last week. As previously reported by Howell County News, the funding came from a total of seven funding agencies: $2.25 million from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) , a $2.5 million grant in Community Development Block Grant funds (CDBG), $2 million from MoDOT, $1 million from Delta Regional Authority, $350,000 from Burlington Northern Railroad, $250,000 from Leonardo DRS, and more than $600,000 from the City of West Plains in cash and in-kind funds. 

 

In a nod to his work on the project former West Plains City Administrator Tom Stehn handled the ceremonial scissors in Friday’s ribbon cutting ceremony at the overpass.