The region's newest four-lane highway will be completed and opened for traffic more than a month ahead of schedule.

The Missouri Department of Transportation announced on Friday that dedication ceremonies and the official opening of Missouri Route 249 from Zora Street to Missouri Highway 171, including the interchange at Carterville, are set for 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 6.

This will complete the four-lane highway known locally as the Range Line bypass from Missouri 171 to Interstate 44 and give drivers another way around traffic and traffic signals on the busy retail corridor of Madison Street in Webb City and Range Line Road in Joplin.

It also creates an uninterrupted four-lane corridor from Webb City and Carterville to the Arkansas state line.

Webb City Economic Development Director Chuck Surface said the bypass provides a new entrance for Webb City and will help pull truck traffic with no intention of stopping in Webb City off of Madison Street.

"A lot of people are not used to coming into Webb City from that direction," Surface said. "It will open new areas to development."

Surface said that in Webb, City the bypass will take some of the pressure off of Hall Street, which has become a bypass of sorts for truck traffic from the Joplin-Webb City Industrial Park.
That traffic has damaged Hall Street to the point where Webb City is planning to make major repairs to the street.

In addition, the city also plans to extend 17th Street from Madison Street to the east to Hall Street. Eventually 17th Street will extend to Missouri 249 and Webb City planners are hoping to eventually build an interchange there.

For a fact sheet on the construction of the Range Line bypass, see http://www.modot.mo.gov.southwest