I-70 closures and high hotel occupancy will affect residents and travelers in Columbia this weekend.
Numerous conferences are occurring across Columbia this weekend, resulting in high hotel occupancy. The City of Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau stated that hotels they work with are either sold out or have a single-digit number of rooms available this weekend.
Megan McConachie, Communications and Outreach Supervisor for the city of Columbia, said this requires more pre-planning for travelers.
“We kind of call that one of those perfect storm weekends were there a lot of things going on that just adds up to a high occupancy weekend. So, we definitely have a few of those weekends every year where there maybe isn’t just one big event that we can point to, and so this is definitely one of them,”McConachie said.
Additionally, road construction begins tonight at 7 p.m. and will continue through Monday morning. The construction will close eastbound I-70 between Paris Road and US 63 as a part of the Improve I-70 project. Eric Kopinksi, Improve I-70 State-wide director, anticipates delays for eastbound travelers.
“A single lane will be open, but there will be significant backups with only one lane being open,” Kopinksi said.
MODOT anticipates the delays to be around 30 minutes, but none for westbound motorists or those traveling before 7 p.m. MoDOT suggests allowing extra time when traveling this weekend.
When asked if this will affect impending visitors, McConachie said she doesn’t think so.
“I would expect that that’s probably not going to deter people from coming to Columbia, but it’s definitely just something that we want them to consider when they’re planning their travels,” McConachie said.
Kopinksi said construction should be finished by 5 a.m. Monday morning.
