highways

Gov. Mike Kehoe signed a bill earlier this week that increases the maximum speed limit on rural interstates and freeways in Missouri to 75 miles per hour, up from 70.

The state has received more than $90 million in federal grant funding to improve Interstate 70 for all drivers, and especially for truck drivers.

The eight-state highway's origins started in Springfield, Missouri, a century ago on April 30, 1926. The route helped keep some Missouri and Kansas towns afloat during the Great Depression and after World War II.

"The Ghost of the Colonial Hotel" was unveiled this week at the exact moment a telegraph was sent officially naming Route 66, 100 years ago.

NBC's "Today Show" broadcast Thursday from the newly dedicated Route 66 Birthplace Plaza in Springfield, Missouri. Meanwhile, an event in Baxter Springs, Kansas — one of the inspirations for Radiator Springs in the Pixar movie "Cars" — featured the release of 100 lanterns into the sky.

A city team focused on improving U.S. Highway 71 has proposed moving the roadway below ground level, creating narrower lanes and building overpasses to connect neighborhoods east to west. The highway’s construction tore through majority-Black neighborhoods in east Kansas City decades ago.

The semi crashed on March 1 on a stretch of highway near Jerome, Missouri, but the truck's load of tofu became increasingly more pungent as temperatures rose.

As the United States’ first federal highway system, Route 66 connected people and places across the country. It was a symbol of adventure but also independence, especially for Black travelers through Missouri.

Watkins was a founder of the political organization Freedom, Inc. and one of the Kansas City Council’s first two Black members. He was a vocal opponent of Highway 71 — although parts of the parkway were eventually named after him. An event at the Kansas City Public Library on Sunday, Feb. 15, will remember his full life and legacy.

Orange cones and jack hammers have slowed drivers on U.S. Highway 69 for years. Officials announced Tuesday that express toll lanes running north and south will be open on Feb. 21. The new lanes are designed to reduce traffic and accidents.

In 1912, Kansas City, Missouri, became the first city in the U.S. to arrest people for jaywalking. Fueled by auto industry propaganda, this decision set off a nationwide trend to redesign our roads for the car — at the expense of everyone else.

Missouri residents today have even less say in their transportation needs. Last year, Gov. Mike Kehoe slashed the state’s Transit Operating Investment nearly in half, reducing funding to local public transit agencies.