Future
Long-term plans call for I-49 to be extended southeastward from Lafayette to New Orleans and northward from Shreveport to Kansas City, Missouri where it will connect with other interstates and provide a seamless freeway link from Louisiana ports to the Canadian border in North Dakota via Interstate 29 and to other points north via Interstate 35.
Construction for the extension north is already underway in southwest Missouri, northern and southwestern Arkansas, and in northern Louisiana.
A 180-mile stretch of U.S. 71 from south Kansas City to Joplin will officially become Interstate 49 on Dec. 12, 2012.
U.S. 71 is already a divided highway with a 70 mph speed limit, but the change to an interstate meant eliminating all intersections and cross roads along the route. The Missouri Department of Transportation has awarded $63.3 million since 2009 to remove the crossings and replace them with four overpasses, nine interchanges and three outer roads.
Read more about this topic: Interstate 49
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“The future is the worst thing about the present.”
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“For a parent, it’s hard to recognize the significance of your work when you’re immersed in the mundane details. Few of us, as we run the bath water or spread the peanut butter on the bread, proclaim proudly, “I’m making my contribution to the future of the planet.” But with the exception of global hunger, few jobs in the world of paychecks and promotions compare in significance to the job of parent.”
—Joyce Maynard (20th century)
“It lives less in the present
Than in the future always,
And less in both together
Than in the past.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)