Planning still needed for Highway 74 link

The need for highway planning at the Highway 74/Interstate 55 interchange still exists, even though the Missouri Department of Transportation has announced it has no plans to build a loop to funnel traffic off Route K and away from the congestion on William Street.

Right now, Highway 74 extends from the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge west to I-55 where it dead ends on the west side of the interstate.

(Another portion of Highway 74 goes from an I-55 interchange farther south west to Dutchtown and Highway 25.)

Other road considerations in that area include Bloomfield Road west of Siemers Drive, whose narrow and winding roadway serves a developing areas of upscale homes as well as a new golf course-housing development before it connects with the part of Highway 74 that goes to Dutchtown.

How to connect the traffic from the western stretch of Highway 74 and Bloomfield Road to the Highway 74 interchange on I-55 still needs attention.

Even though MoDOT is short on funds for road projects right now, good planning will be needed if and when funding, perhaps from local sources (see the editorial above), becomes available.