Joyce L. Miller
joyce.miller@lakesunonline.com
A long-awaited deal between landowners, the city and state has paved the way for the Missouri Department of Transportation to upgrade the Highway 54 expressway interchange at Nichols Road (Lake Road 54-56) to a double-diamond design for better traffic flow.
MoDOT and Osage Beach city officials have been working with Lake Regional Hospital representatives, Duenke Enterprises, Dogwood Hills and Osage Catfisheries/Sycamore Creek representatives for more than a year negotiating with the property owners.
The parties have reached an agreement to turn land needed for right-of-way over to the state at no cost. Details of the agreement have not been released.
State and local officials are waiting to have the agreement signed and finalized. That could happen by the end of July.
In order to move forward with the interchange, the state needed to acquire four parcels of land in order to close the deal on the interchange.
The interchange will be in addition to the Route KK interchange. The interchange will have two off ramps and one on ramp.
MoDOT engineer Roger Schwartz said the double diamond has already been designed. The interchange is part of the $138 million Osage Beach expressway project.
The negotiations have not slowed the expressway project.
The double diamond was originally proposed by developers after MoDOT designed the interchange for the expressway.
It fell through when one of the developers was unable to get approval for a tax increment financing district.
When that occurred, MoDOT had already allocated the money for the expressway project. In order to upgrade, MoDOT said there was going to have to be additional funding to purchase the right-of-way.
