The Grant Avenue Parkway project in Springfield may have just a few more months of construction left.
Kristen Milam, Senior communications Coordinator with the city’s Department of Public Information and Civic Engagement told KSMU they hope the work on Grant in west central Springfield is complete by the end of this October. It began in Spring 2022. Federal grants helping to fund the project require it to be finished by the end of the year.
“It has taken a little bit longer than we thought,” Milam explained, “But some of that has to do with right-of-way acquisitions.” She said the city has been finalizing acquisitions alongside the construction, and it “just took us a little bit longer to get a couple property owner agreements, to access just a handful of properties on the north side of the project.”
To spite delays Milam said they expect the project to come in at the budgeted cost of $26.2 million, and Milam said the city is happy with the progress they’ve seen, including the new private investment the work has spurred on Grant south of Grand.
Milam said the final phase of the project will involve something that has been a topic of conversation lately in Springfield, burying utility lines.
“The companies that provide us with our internet and our communications and our electricity, it's now their responsibility for relocating their aboveground infrastructure into the underground system, the conduit system that we've prepared for them.” Once that’s done, she said, we “will really be able to see how different this area is going to be and how it's going to feel when you're driving through.”
She says when that is completed the final step of the project will be resurfacing the road. She adds that the public should expect sections of Grant to remain one-lane until the project is complete.