The Cole County Commission has approved working with Jefferson City officials on design work to address traffic congestion at U.S. 54 and Stadium Boulevard.
At Thursday's meeting, commissioners approved spending $25,000 on the project. The city will also spend $25,000, and MoDOT is funding the remaining $204,000.
The first part of the work will take place this year with improvements to Monroe and Madison streets as part of the expansion of Capital Region Medical Center.
Last year, the commission agreed to enter into an agreement with George Butler Associates of Kansas City for design work of Monroe Street and Stadium Boulevard intersection improvements in a cooperative effort with Jefferson City using capital sales tax monies.
The plan would make Monroe a two-way street from Woodlawn Avenue to Stadium, with a traffic signal planned at Monroe and Stadium, and widen Stadium to make it five lanes for left-turn pockets.
On the other side of U.S. 54 at the Jefferson and Stadium intersection, a dual-lane roundabout would be put in with a right-hand slip lane coming off the U.S. 54 exit ramp through Stadium to Christy Drive. There would also be widening of Stadium west to the Trinity Lutheran Church driveway.
The Monroe work and the improvements at Madison will cost $1.8 million.
Work on the Stadium Boulevard and Jefferson Street intersection at the U.S. 54 interchange could come in summer 2016 and cost $1.6 million.
The hospital's $37 million expansion will add 120,000 square feet and is scheduled to be done in July. It will expand outpatient services and physician offices along with a pharmacy and a breast cancer center.