About 50 people showed up at the Cedar Hill Elks Lodge last week for an open house to learn about safety improvements proposed for Hwy. 30 in Jefferson County, the Missouri Department of Transportation reported. Some of those attendees said they were worried the improvements won’t be enough to curb crashes, injuries and fatalities on the highway.
According to a MoDOT traffic study, from 2016 to 2020, there were 1,620 crashes within a 20-mile stretch of Hwy. 30 in Jefferson County, from Hwy. Y in Grubville to Old Sugar Creek Road in the Murphy area in unincorporated Fenton. The top three most common types of crashes along that stretch were rear ends, roadway departures and turning.
MoDOT held its open house on June 24 to share information about its plan to reduce serious and fatal crashes along Hwy. 30 by installing several types of safety improvements. That plan has been in the works since 2024, and the project is expected to be completed by June 2026.
The plan calls for MoDOT to use “lane narrowing” on a curve on Hwy. 30, a half mile east of Dittmer Ridge Road in Dittmer, as well as on another curve about 2 miles west of Dittmer Ridge Road at Diehl Road near Cedar Hill Lakes.
The “narrowing” of the lanes from 12 feet to 10 feet is intended to create an optical illusion meant to slow drivers down. The actual pavement will remain the same, but the median striping will be widened, giving drivers the sense that the road is narrowing, project engineer Stacey Smith said.
This safety improvement is new to Jefferson County, she said, which is why MoDOT organized the meeting.
“We’re trying to figure out how to keep people alive,” Smith said. “When you’re driving in a 10-foot lane (versus a 12-foot lane), that feels pretty small. The hope is, and what we’ve seen across the country and other parts of the state, that narrower lanes lead to lower speeds.”
According to MoDOT, there were 56 crashes in that 2-mile stretch of Hwy. 30 from 2016 to 2020. Six of the crashes resulted in fatalities or serious injuries.
MoDOT installed retroreflective backplates on traffic signals and flashing LED warning lights on Hwy. 30 last year. In addition, it added modified right turns at Hwy. 30’s intersection with Hwy. BB in Cedar Hill and Hwy. Y in Grubville. The modified right-turn lanes improve driver-side visibility and discourage high-speed turns, according to MoDOT.
All of the Hwy. 30 improvements are part of a $52 million safety improvement project spread throughout 230 locations in St. Louis, St. Louis County and Jefferson County.
Several local residents spoke at the open house, telling MoDOT officials the scheduled improvements aren’t enough to eliminate crashes in the area. A few residents even walked out of the meeting in anger.
County Councilman Bob Tullock, who represents District 7, including Cedar Hill and Dittmer, said the top concerns he’s been hearing from residents who frequently drive along Hwy. 30 are speeding, inattentive driving and carelessness.
“I was coming back from Branson this past weekend, driving up Hwy. 30, and I followed two cars that were all over the road,” Tullock said. “Why? They were on their cell phones.”
Assistant St. Louis district engineer Tom Evers said he understands residents’ concerns, adding that the proposed improvements are not going to solve all the issues on Hwy. 30. But, it’s a start, he said.
“I would say, just be respectful about the improvements that we’re doing,” Evers told the open house attendees. “(The lane narrowing) does not change the world. Some drivers are still going to speed and take the curves too fast. Unfortunately, we can’t stop that in this project, (but) writing down some of those ideas on a public comment card could make a difference in the future.”
“It’s understandable that people will still speed; it’s not something we can just eliminate,” added Jordan Dalaviras, MoDOT area liaison for Jefferson and Franklin counties. “We’re taking a look at fatal and serious injury crashes and trying to reduce that number.”
MoDOT is still accepting public feedback at modot.org/route-30-public-meeting. The site also has information on the overall safety improvements on Hwy. 30.