Cameron hopeful grant addresses dangerous corridor at Hwy 36 and Ensign Trace

City planners hope a $2,000 investment into a traffic study will create a new commercial corridor in the north section of Cameron. 

Cameron Public Works Director Drew Bontrager announced the city received an $8,000 Traffic Engineering Assistance Program grant to pay for a study regarding the safety of U.S. 36, Reservoir Road and McElwain Drive, which multiple emergency response officials believe is a top priority for the safety of Cameron motorists and pedestrians.

“Only half of the people who apply throughout the state are successful in obtaining it,” Bontrager said. “I’m not so sure we weren’t the only ones in Northwest Missouri that received this … We’re hoping we can have this study completed and presented to MoDOT by the early summer is our goal. It’s $10,000 and the grant is for $8,000 so the city will have to spend $2,000.”

Bontrager said the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission will conduct the traffic study, which he said came about as part of a May study by the Mo.-Kan. Safety Assessment, which recommended constructing overpasses or underpasses to improve the safety of the intersection. 

“An interchange would be ideal, whether that’s Reservoir Road or somewhere along McElwain Drive - somewhere in that corridor on US 36,” Bontrager said. 

Although stating multiple times the safety is their top concern, city officials also noted an interchange would also create another corridor for development. With city planners looking to make the Cameron Reservoir a regional attraction, westward commercial expansion already seems a likelihood, but an additional overpass may make it a foregone conclusion.

“The other advantage to that is it opens up the westend of town,” Cameron City Manager Steve Rasmussen said. “If you have the interchange there, and it moves down Reservoir Road to the airport, then what you have is another interchange, another economic corridor with access to the airport. That is in the long-range plan of the city as well.”

The council also:

Approved an agreement with Cameron Fire Protection District to allow the Cameron Fire Department to field calls outside of city limits.

Approved an agreement with the Great Northwest Missouri Wholesale Water Commission to gain the right-of-way for a 28-mile water pipeline.

Received a presentation regarding the EDOC’s recent youth focus group presentation.