The City Council authorized staff via Resolution 26‑R‑12 on May 19, 2026, to apply for up to $7,000,000 from USDOT's Safe Streets for All (SS4A) grant program to fund safety improvements along Route MM between Interstate 44 and James River Freeway (Route 360). The project is identified as Route MM Project B, a Tier 2 project in the Ozarks Transportation Organization’s qualified safety action plan, and is structured as a partnership between the City of Republic, OTO, MoDOT, and Greene County with a total estimated cost of $19,143,112 and a local match of up to $2,000,000 split between Republic and Greene County alongside MoDOT cost-share and OTO Surface Transportation Block Grant funds. If the grant is awarded, staff will return to Council before accepting the award and obligating local match funds. This is an early-stage but well-defined corridor project likely to require planning, design, safety engineering, right‑of‑way services, and construction once funding is secured, giving transportation and roadway safety vendors a window to engage on concept development, benefit‑cost analysis, and eventual implementation support tied to Route MM safety upgrades.

Project leverages MoDOT cost share and OTO STBG; HB 2017 also requests $6M for maintenance, repair, ...