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 dedications ceremonies and the official opening of Missouri Route 249 from Zora Street to Missouri Highway 171, including the interchange at Carterville, is set for 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 6.

This will complete the four-lane highway known as locally as the Range Line bypass from Missouri 171 to Interstate 44 and give drivers another way around traffic and streetlights 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.

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