Clark County, MO – Several hundred people braved the heat and humidity in Northeast Missouri, this morning, to see the dream of so many become a reality.
All four lanes of the roughly 550-mile Avenue of the Saints are now open for traffic between St. Louis, MO and St. Paul, MN.
The Missouri Department of Transportation removed the cones and barriers along the final nine miles in southern Clark County, after a 90-minute dedication ceremony.
The entire project, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to complete, has been in the works for more than 20 years.
Tom Boland of Hannibal, MO and Don Carmody of Mt. Pleasant, IA are two of the local leaders that made the Avenue of the Saints a reality.
Boland says the highway will help put Northeast Missouri on the map.
Carmody says every community along the Avenue of the Saints will see the benefits of the years of hard work.
Lawmakers, organizations, and individuals from throughout the upper Midwest were recognized for their efforts during the ceremony, none more so than a group of young adults known to many as the SMART kids.
A group of Canton High School students formed SMART: Students of Missouri Assisting Rural Transportation, in 2000 after one of their classmates was killed.
Amanda Lindsey of Quincy, Illinois is one of the members of SMART who lobbied state and federal lawmakers to secure money for a safer, four-lane highway.
It was said that without the work of the SMART kids, Missouri's portion of the Avenue of the Saints may not have become a reality until 2020.
But through the work of those students, and hundreds, if not thousands, of others people throughout the Midwest, the four-lane, Avenue of the Saints is now open for business between St. Louis and St. Paul.