The Missouri Department of Transportation approved its Statewide Transportation Improvement Program for 2026-30 on July 1. The annual document outlines the department’s plans for continued infrastructure improvements throughout the state, including several projects in Warren County. 

“That is our rolling five year plan that gets updated every July 1, of which projects we have committed funding to to basically make those improvements, … there’s a couple different categories there, obviously, between projects that have been legislatively funded as well as some potential projects in the future,” said Northeast District Area Engineer Jeff Niemeyer. 

Niemeyer said there are three legislatively funded projects of note in this year’s STIP that will directly impact Warren County. 

Legislatively funded projects

The largest of the three projects will be part of a statewide effort to improve semi-truck parking along the Interstate 70 corridor and will impact the rest stop at Wright City. 

“It was to improve ITS (intelligent transportation systems) and truck parking along I-70 to kind of go and help supplement the I-70 project,” said Niemeyer. “We’re improving those three lanes of I-70 but also giving us more updated truck parking.”

That project will include roughly $33 million in improvements across rest stops in Wright City, Boonville and Mineola. Bids to improve the rest stops are expected to be awarded in April 2026. 

The rest stop improvements will be partially funded through the federal Rebuilding America Grant with just under $26 million in federal funds along with roughly $6.4 million in state funds. 

Another project in Warren County scheduled to be awarded in 2027 will bring pavement improvements to Highway 47 between Route M and the Missouri River Bridge in Washington. 

That project is projected to cost roughly $2.8 million. 

According to Niemeyer, they will be conducting a “preventative maintenance treatment” on the road. He said that treatment is a maintenance step between a seal coat and a full overlay, although the scope of the project could change depending on the road’s condition. 

A third legislatively funded project that Niemeyer said will impact Warren County will also be taking place partially in Lincoln County. 

There are two legislatively funded projects for improvements to Route J in Warren and Lincoln counties at a combined cost of roughly $8.3 million. 

Niemeyer said those projects will add shoulders to Route J from Route H in Troy to the north outer road of I-70 in Wright City and replace the Big Creek Bridge just south of Route U. 

The bridge improvement bid is scheduled to be awarded in December of this year, with the shoulder improvements following in 2027. 

“That was kind of a combined need that Lincoln County and Warren County put on the unfunded needs list here last year to add shoulders to that,” said Niemeyer. “I was happy to get that moved in, so we were going to put some safety funds on that to get two-foot shoulders and an overlay on it with rumbles.”

Design and scoping projects

The STIP also includes a variety of design and scoping projects, where MoDOT will assess proposed improvements from regional planning commissions and potentially look to fund them in future years. 

“Design and scoping projects are kind of the projects that we know are coming due,” said Niemeyer. “A lot of times, we’ll have a transportation need that comes from our regional planning commissions, … but a lot of times, people don’t know the scope of that project.”

One of the most impactful scoping projects included in the STIP for Warren County is a traffic study for potential interchange improvements on I-70 at Stracks Church Road in Wright City. 

Local authorities had expressed their desire for a highway interchange at the Stracks Church Road overpass in the planning stages of the Improve I-70 project, however that desire was not included in the final bids. 

Niemeyer said this was the first step towards potentially building an interchange at that overpass. The traffic study will take place over a one-year period and will assess whether an interchange is needed, and what form it could take. 

The study would examine the potential safety and traffic impacts of an interchange and from there, MoDOT could seek approval from the Federal Highway Administration if they determine an interchange is warranted. 

Niemeyer said the Stracks Church Road overpass is currently in tier two of the department’s unfunded needs list, meaning potential improvements are likely roughly 10 years away. 

He said while those improvements were not included in the Improve I-70 project, this was a step in the right direction. 

“We really (focused) on the goal of the project, which was getting three lanes on I-70 for 200 miles, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get done later,” said Niemeyer. “So that’s kind of part of this, to keep that conversation going.”

There are several other scoping and design projects in Warren County including additional improvements to outer roads and Route 47. 

The full 2026-30 STIP can be found on MoDOT’s website at https://www.modot.org/statewide-transportation-improvement-program-stip.