Eastowne receiving multiple infrastructure upgrades
By Chris Fortune
City leaders are investing in business development and infrastructure on the east side of St. Joseph.
Eastowne Business Park is set to receive a new pump station at the end of Pickett Road, and another large project will improve Pickett Road from Riverside Road to Craig Parkway after they were approved by the city council in late November.
A new $2,995,243 pump station at the end of Pickett Road will enhance the industrial zone by connecting utilities such as water, wastewater, a sanitary sewer and a lift station to the area.
A joint project between the City of St. Joseph and the Chamber of Commerce resulted in a successful application for a $2.5 million ARPA industrial site grant for the Eastowne.
“This is really important,” Deputy Director of Transportation Chance Gallagher said. “It’s part of another project expanding Pickett Road so that both the industrial site will be shovel-ready and then the roadway will be ready to service semi-trucks.”
Pickett Road will see $4,833,170 worth of improvements from Riverside Road to Craig Parkway and Craig Parkway from Pickett Road to Highway 36. They will be expanded to three lanes with a turning lane in the middle.
The City plans to use $1,894,567 in ARPA funds and a grant from the Missouri Governor’s Transportation Cost-Share Program to help pay for the project.
“With the cost of construction these days, it was very important to get these two grants,” Gallagher said. “The Missouri Cost-Share is basically the only reason we’re expanding Pickett. It was a big one.”
The roadway project is expected to be completed before the end of 2026, which will improve traffic when MODOT begins work to replace the Riverside Road bridge over Highway 36 in 2027.
“It’ll also be durable to handle Altec’s traffic when their bridge is under construction for MoDOT and any kind of industrial site that will be put in Eastowne or at Capstone, which is the Craig Parkway area,” Gallagher said.
