When the downtown Lake Taneycomo Bridge was closed for repairs for about a half a day in November, two major areas of traffic congestion were apparent. One was the back up of traffic coming off the south bound Highway 65 ramp to take Business Highway 65 back through Hollister. The other was turning west off the northern end of Gage Drive onto the Business Highway 65 portion of the interchange when coming from Harter House, McDonalds, or the other businesses located off of Gage Drive.
There are two road projects underway in Hollister that will improve both situations, the northern extension of Birch Street and the Gage Drive Loop. The west bound traffic turning from Gage Drive onto Business Highway 65, back to the traffic signal at the College of the Ozarks can, at times be, in the very least challenging and, at the most, dangerous.
Currently there is only one way in and out of the area accessed by Gage Drive and that is through the intersection of Gage Drive and Business Highway 65, which is part of the Highway 65 interchange. At certain times of the day there is moving traffic coming from both directions on the Business Highway 65 portion of the interchange, westbound traffic waiting to turn off of Business Highway 65 onto Gage Drive and traffic on Gage Drive waiting to turn west onto Business Highway 65 towards the College of the Ozarks traffic signal.
The situation gets even more complicated as those coming off of Gage Drive, westbound on Business Highway 65, wanting to go either into the College of the Ozarks or towards Hollister, have to cross two to four lanes of traffic to do so. It gets even more complicated because a lot of the traffic in those lanes, coming from the east, is also changing lanes trying to do the same thing.
Hollister City Administrator, Rick Ziegenfuss explained that the Gage Drive extension will not only help eliminate that situation but provide more parking area and safety for the Hollister Police Department. Gage Drive is being extended south, just past the front of the Hollister Police Department where it will turn west and proceed up to an intersection with Historic Highway 165. This will provide an alternate route to enter and leave those businesses located along Gage Drive and help alleviate the current traffic challenges at its intersection with the Business Highway 65 portion of the interchange.
Ziegenfuss also said that as the project is completed there will be some work and elevation changes at the Hollister Police Department on Gage Drive that will provide for better parking, security, and functionality. He indicated that the project is ready for gutters, curbs, and completion of the road as soon as weather permits.
The north bound Birch Street extension will provide more convenient access to the South Towne Center and the development taking place around it to those travelers coming from the east. Basically, the extension will proceed on a northerly line paralleling Highway 65, from it current intersection with Mall Avenue, and intersect with Business Highway 65 just east of the east end of the Highway 65 flyover bridge.
Ziegenfuss pointed out that the extension will also provide an alternate route to access the Highway 65 interchange which could help more evenly distribute the traffic using the interchange and help it operate more efficiently under heavy traffic situations such as that experienced when the Taneycomo Bridge was closed. He anticipates that the Birch Street extension will be open to traffic in Spring of 2008.
Furnished courtesy of the Branson Daily Independent.
