Design enhancements sought for I

When the Missouri Department of Transportation builds new interchanges, bridges and overpasses, the design is basic and utilitarian, with plenty of gray concrete. If a community wants any of these features to reflect the character of a city or county, it has to provide the capital to do those enhancements.

This is exactly what Columbia has planned for the Interstate 70/U.S. Highway 63 connector project funded by MoDOT. The city and its public and private partners must have the design enhancement profile to MoDOT by July at the latest.

More:MoDOT prefers flyover ramps at Interstate 70 and U.S. Highway 63 connector

"With this kind of civic infrastructure, we only have one shot in our lifetime to make an impact on what it looks like and also the bike and pedestrian connection across it," said Laurel Harrington, a senior landscape architect with the Lochmueller Group, the city's consultant for the enhancement project.

This is so the enhancements are included in MoDOT's design-build request for proposals for the entire interchange project, which includes flyover ramps from northbound Highway 63 to westbound I-70 and eastbound I-70 to southbound Highway 63, avoiding the connector entirely and removing the left-hand exit from I-70 onto Business Loop 70.

The funding for the connector project already was available, even before Gov. Mike Parson's planned signing of the budget bill, which will include more funding for the Improve I-70 widening project. The MoDOT project only looks at functionality and usability, not aesthetics, unlike with the proposed enhancements.

The city's Convention and Visitors Bureau hosted a public meeting Wednesday to gauge community feedback and to take comments. The public also has provided feedback through ideas posted to the project page on BeHeardComo.

Enhancements sought by the public and private partnerships, with the City of Columbia taking point, include more decorative facades; signage highlighting the city and the connector for wayfinding; contemporary or traditional decorative lighting poles; contemporary or traditional fencing decorative brick pavers along pedestrian walkways; large decorative planters and landscaping along ramps.

"What we want to use is very enduring materials that look good over time and we want to borrow from the materials of the city, the universities and pull that out into this," Harrington said. "We know this is a key gateway. ... This is our opportunity to take hold of the look of this and this is our one shot at it.

"There has to be practicality of what needs to be there from a MoDOT transportation durability standpoint. They still have standards we need to follow, even though it is an enhancement scope, it still needs to meet their needs."

While connector enhancements would happen in Columbia, it is seen as a community project by Amy Schneider, Convention and Visitors Bureau director, since the city, county and Columbia Chamber of Commerce partnered to hire the Lochmueller Group for enhancement renderings and beyond, she said.

Schneider was impressed by how Lochmueller Group was able to take all the ideas thrown out by the city, county, the chamber, The Loop Community Improvement District, University of Missouri, MU Health Care, Shelter Insurance and others to come up with the project enhancement renderings.

"They were able to look at Columbia and say, 'This is what we've heard. This is what we see,' and I love the fact they are trying to incorporate the stonework Columbia already has, so they are not trying to reinvent the wheel," she said. "What we are hearing from the community is, 'We want a gateway that represents our community.'"

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Columbia is the largest stakeholder and will be the largest user for the 70/63 project, said Zach Osman, MoDOT transportation project manager.

"We want to incorporate (beautification) and make it look like Columbians want it to, but we don't pay for it. The city does. That's the collaboration we work through," he said. "(MoDOT) in general doesn't work with a lot of decorative elements ever on projects. A lot of it is budget related. Those pretty things are expensive and we can't work like that. We can't afford to.

"Getting to see the ideas the city comes up with and things they want to incorporate, it's very cool."

It still will take time before any sort of changes will happen to the connector and MoDOT's likely plans of the flyover ramps and single-point urban interchange for the connector itself. This is an interchange where only left-hand turns are stopped by a traffic light. All right-hand turns are yielding turns to keep the flow of traffic moving around those waiting to turn left.

The timeline to get the enhancements to MoDOT are much shorter than MoDOT's timeline for selecting a design-build contractor for the entire connector project.

"In June we'll take this to the city council. Even though the three entities (city, county, chamber) put the money together, the city is leading the project. We'll get council feedback and since it's a design-build project we have to get all of our ideas firmed up and taken to council before MoDOT puts its RFP out," Schneider said. "I wouldn't see any movement on this for at least a year (after that)."

More:Columbia City Council submits letter to MoDOT regarding I-70 proposals. Here's what it says

MoDOT representatives have attended every meeting where the connector enhancements were discussed, she added.

"The money already is there for 70/63, but any beautification efforts will have to be fundraised for (through) grants, public-private partnerships. We are looking at all different ways. We do know there are some private industries and companies interested and we can look for grants all day long," Schneider said.

Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at [email protected] or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.