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News Brief

March 20, 2019Maryville, MO |  By: Josh Dillman

Highway 71 serving as an alternate route for I-29

With I-29 closed due to flood waters, drivers headed north will have to use alternative routes until conditions improve. Northwest Missouri has already seen an increase in traffic with Highway 71 being used as an alternate route. Nodaway County Sheriff Randy Strong says the Missouri Highway Patrol is taking action to handle the extra traffic.

"We're seeing a huge increase in truck traffic through 71 Highway.  The highway patrol was good enough to put up a portable lit sign as you come in to Maryville going north at Kawasaki warning drivers of the speed and the lights ahead.  It's got a radar unit in it that shows them their speed and there's a sign on there telling them to slow down to 45 miles an hour.  We're hoping it helps alleviate some rear-end collision at the lights there by Kawasaki."

Strong adds local residents should give themselves extra travel time, be cautious on the road, and use an alternate route to Highway 71 when possible.

"It's going to impact us for a while during this flooding issue and we're just going to have to be mindful that it's going to take a little more time to travel that route.  And maybe we need to look locally and see if we can stay off of 71 and take an alternate route to help with that traffic congestion.  Stay off the phones, don't text, pay attention because people are going to stop in front of you.  The truck traffic is really really heavy that we're seeing.  Of course there's a lot of commerce moving up and down the interstate and now it's coming through our community."

For 24-hour access to updates and information on road conditions, motorists can go the Missouri Department of Transportation's website at www.modot.org .