Meeting Set for Hopewell Hill Improvements

MoDOT will unveil plans next month for improvements on a mile-long portion of Route 47 about five miles south of Warrenton.

Hopewell Hill, as the stretch of highway is commonly known, has no shoulders and two sharp S-curves that have been the subject of many complaints, according to MoDOT officials.

MoDOT has been working with the community and its planning partner, Boonslick Regional Planning Commission, to design improvements to that portion of Highway 47. Preliminary plans will be presented to the public at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 30, at the Warren County Fire Protection District station on Route 47, near the county administration building.  

The public will then be invited to comment on the designs, which will also be available for viewing on MoDOT’s website, modot.org/northeast, after Oct. 23. A virtual online meeting will also be available to individuals who can’t attend the Oct. 30 meeting.

MoDOT Area Engineer Erik Maninga said this is a challenging area to develop an improved design because of the steep hills and rock bluffs. Nevertheless, MoDOT hopes to finalize the plans and start the project in 2014.

For Warren County Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage, improvements to Hopewell Hill can’t come soon enough. Engelage’s wife and son were both involved in two separate crashes on that stretch of highway.

“They were both hit by semis that came across the line,” he said.

Southern Commissioner Hubie Kluesner said there have been about 286 accidents on Hopewell Hill in the past 10 years.