KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Grain Valley. Share your story idea with Claire.
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Long-requested safety improvements are coming to a stretch of U.S. Route 40 in Grain Valley starting this summer.
The Missouri Department of Transportation held a public meeting for the safety ideas last October and has a plan to move forward.
MoDOT's plans from Sni-A-Bar to Kirby will come in two two phases.
This summer, MoDOT will add a turn lane at Barr Road and signals at Kirby Road. MoDOT will also install a concrete median at Sni-A-Bar. The median will limit traffic to right-in, right-out only. There will also be added pedestrian crossing improvements.
Data provided by the Grain Valley Police Department showed officers responded to five crashes at Sni-A-Bar and U.S. 40 in 2024, 15 in 2025, and two so far in 2026.
"We have dealt with it for close to 20 years and just now getting to the point to where something's getting done. I mean, there were improvements made in the past where they added the long deceleration turn lane. They added that years back. That didn't fix the problem there. So we've gotten a lot of complaints about that particular intersection," Grain Valley Mayor Mike Todd said.
Since this is a MoDOT roadway, the City of Grain Valley has no jurisdiction over that stretch.
The initial improvements will only be in place for a few years. MoDOT plans to come back in 2029 and add a roundabout to lower conflict points. MoDOT said design will begin this summer with another public meeting and online comment period in Spring 2027 once preliminary plans are complete.
While signalized intersections have approximately 20-30 conflict points, or spots where vehicles could collide, roundabouts reduce the number of conflict points to fewer than 8. Fewer conflict points, combined with slower speeds and calmer traffic, can translate into as much as 76% fewer crashes. Because roundabouts tend to have fewer severe crashes than signalized intersections, they have fewer crash-related injuries as well.
The project will be funded from MoDOT's safety funds. The entire project cannot be completed this summer due to budget constraints.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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