Route W carries school buses, log trucks, ambulances and summer lake traffic on a two-lane road with crumbling edges, blind curves and almost nowhere to pull off. We are asking MoDOT to study this corridor and fund the fixes.
The corridor as it stands — no shoulder, no recovery room
The conditions
What makes this road different
Nobody who drives Highway W regularly needs this explained. It is written down here because the people who decide whether it gets fixed do not drive it.
01Shoulders
Pavement that ends in air
Long stretches have little or no paved shoulder, and the asphalt edge has broken away into the grass. Drop a tire off the edge at highway speed and there is no recovery room — only a ditch or a tree line.
02Sight distance
Curves you cannot see around
The road follows the ridges instead of cutting through them. Crests and tight bends hide oncoming traffic, stopped mail carriers and vehicles waiting to turn until a driver is already on top of them.
03Traffic mix
A farm road doing lake-season work
Boat trailers, RVs, delivery trucks and visitors unfamiliar with the corridor pour onto Highway W every summer weekend, on a road whose geometry was never designed for that mix or that volume.
04School routes
School buses use it twice a day
Buses stop on a road with no shoulder to pull onto and limited sight distance behind them. Children board and exit within feet of passing traffic.
05Emergency access
Long minutes for help to arrive
Rural response distances are already long. When a wreck blocks both lanes on a corridor with no alternate route and nowhere to pass, ambulances and fire apparatus lose time that patients do not have.
06Access points
Turning is the dangerous part
Driveways, marina entrances, campgrounds and field access points open directly onto the travel lane. A vehicle slowing to turn becomes a stationary obstacle with traffic closing behind it.
The petition
Seven things we want MoDOT to do
Homes, a school, marinas and campgrounds all take their access directly from the travel lane
Signatures are delivered to MoDOT Central District leadership and to the state representatives and senators serving Miller and Morgan counties.
01
Study the whole corridor, publicly
Complete a formal safety study of Route W across Miller and Morgan counties and publish the crash history, traffic counts and findings where residents can read them.
02
Widen and rebuild the shoulders
Pave usable shoulders along the corridor and repair the broken pavement edge, prioritising the curves and the sections with steep drop-offs.
03
Add rumble strips
Install centerline and edge-line rumble strips — among the lowest-cost, highest-return countermeasures available for exactly this kind of two-lane rural road.
04
Guard the drop-offs and bridge approaches
Install guardrail, delineators and reflective markers where the roadway falls away steeply or narrows at a bridge.
05
Make the curves legible before drivers reach them
Add advance curve warning, chevron alignment signs and realistic advisory speeds at every blind curve and hidden access point.
06
Build turn lanes and pull-offs where traffic concentrates
Provide dedicated turning space or pull-off areas at the highest-volume entrances — marinas, campgrounds, schools and subdivisions.
07
Re-set the speed limit to match the road
Re-evaluate the posted limit against the corridor’s real geometry, sight distance and seasonal traffic mix.
Add your name
Sign the petition
One signature is an opinion. A few thousand from the people who live on, work on and drive this corridor every day is a record that has to be answered.
1
Your name is counted immediately
The tally on this page updates the moment you sign, so everyone can see the corridor organising in real time.
2
We package the corridor evidence
Signatures are grouped by town, county and how often each person drives Highway W — a picture of who this road actually serves.
3
It gets delivered and followed up
The petition goes to MoDOT Central District leadership and to the legislators for Miller and Morgan counties. Signers are emailed when it lands.
The signers
Nobody has signed yet
The first name carries the most weight
No signatures have been recorded yet. Be the person who starts the record on Highway W.
Almost every name on this page got here because a neighbour, a co-worker or someone in a Facebook group passed the link along. Send it to three people who drive Highway W.
