Osage Beach Puts Parkway Multi-Use Lanes On Back Burner Temporarily

What had been future plans for bike lanes or multi-use lanes along the Osage Beach Parkway are put on hold, at least, for the foreseeable future.

The proposed lanes had been included in the city’s Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant, potentially, meaning that a current lane of traffic would need to disappear to make way for the bike or multi-use lanes.

Instead, the city is working with a consultant, the State and the Federal Highway Administration to amend the grant agreement to include an Access Management Policy and an ADA Transition Plan.

“That would be a regulation that every developer that would come in, whether it be for a large scale property for multiple retail sites or an individual property with one restaurant, it would govern how they would be able to access their property and by how many road cuts they would use.”

City Planner Cary Patterson explaining how such an access management policy would reduce the numbers of accidents and crashes along the parkway.

The topic, during this past week’s board of aldermen meeting, was officially a discussion item only with no action taken. The next step is to get the amended proposal sent off and then returned to the board for its formal approval.

It’s estimated that the process could take 4-6 months.