Highway 54 Update From MODOT

Route-54 motorists between the recently closed Lakeland Road crossover and the new interchange near Business-54 and Route-W will have to drive a bit further now to turn around and head in the opposite direction.

That’s according to MoDOT Central District Area Engineer Danny Roeger who says the crossover in question that has been used as a J-turn, is being closed to traffic effective immediately…“Next week we’re actually going to remove the crossing. We’re going to bring some equipment in and just remove it. This week…we’re going to close it….so we’ll have some message boards going up this week and we’ll have some barricades placed in that median crossover just get folks use to making better decisions.”

Roeger also says, with the closure, westbound motorists wanting to get turned around to head back eastbound will have two options…driving up old Lakeland Road to the new interchange at W and Business-54, or driving westbound up 54 to navigate through the new interchange.

The closure of that crossover between Lakeland Road and Route-54-W is being based on the volume of traffic to use it with no acceleration or deceleration lanes in the area to help getting back up to speed before re-entering the highway.