Riverside Set to Open Horizon's Parkway
A project that was once on the horizon – a $20 million feat of engineering that included building a levee and a parkway — is finally set to open. On December 11 at 10:30 a.m. the City of Riverside and Missouri Department of Transportation will host the I-635/Horizons Parkway ribbon cutting ceremony.
The I-635/Horizons Parkway ribbon cutting event will officially open the new I-635 Interchange and the first portion of Horizons Parkway, which serves as a strategic connection between the freeway and Highway 9. Most importantly, the ceremony will officially make way for development in the nearly 1,200-acre area that promises a new “horizon” for Riverside’s future.
The event represents more than three years of work by a broad cross section of Riverside residents and officials, finalizing in construction over the last 17 months of the full diamond interchange on I-635. Significantly, that work included Phase 1 of Horizons Parkway, approximately one-half mile of four-lane thoroughfare with a 32-foot median – the first section of what will eventually provide a road network within the Horizons development and a key connection to Highway 9.
The approximately $20 million project also included utilities that lay the ground work for the multi-use development that will be key to the area’s growth.
“This is a key step in access from the interchange to Highway 9 and to spur the development,” Riverside Director of Planning and Development Brent Miles said. “The levee was the first major step and this is the second. They are critical to opening that area.”
Horizons Parkway will provide the north/south link from the new I-635 interchange north to Highway 9 and serve as a major trunk road through the development. The first phase to be open December 11 will also allow for two key, east/west secondary connections that will open the interior of the development. A bridge over the BNSF railway will be built in a later phase.