Infrastructure.

It's a boring-sounding word but a critically important part of how a community grows. What would Rome have been without its aqueducts and roads?

As Lake of the Ozarks grows, so must its infrastructure. And while the Lake has plenty of advantages, infrastructurally, a few areas are in desperate need of improvement. The good news is, most of them are receiving that improvement, this year.

Here's a short list of what needs doing, and what's being done...

Four Infrastructure Improvements Lake Of The Ozarks Needs

1. The Toll Bridge

Needs To Be Free

We started with an easy one. This week — literally today! — the toll bridge becomes free for drivers.

The bridge has been one of the most important infrastructure projects at the Lake, as it connected the east side with the west and opened up development in areas that have become some of the most high-end neighborhoods at Lake of the Ozarks. But those who rely on the bridge for work or daily commutes have not always enjoyed paying that toll.

With the bridge paid off, it will be transferred to the state and the Missouri Department of Transportation will be taking over maintenance. (And Missouri taxpayers will be funding it, because nothing is actually free.)

2. Bagnell Dam Boulevard

Needs Less Potholes

It's time to talk about it. Sure, Bagnell Dam Boulevard is not the worst road at the Lake — if you count the pothole-ridden gravel back roads crawling the countryside. But it's got to be the worst high-traffic road at the Lake.

This road — the primary thoroughfare through Lake Ozark — has languished for far too long. Motorcyclists who arrive for Bikefest have to be on constant pothole alert. And also it just... looks bad.

The City, however, is really working on a fix. You can read more about it, here:

Bagnell Dam Boulevard Upgrades! Lake Ozark Planning Major Road Improvements In 2024

LAKE OZARK, Mo. — Riddled with potholes and patches, Bagnell Dam Boulevard has long been a l…

3. Osage Beach's Sewer

Needs Not To Be Smelled, Especially While You're Buying Ice Cream

It's a stinky situation. You've smelled it, approaching the Grand Glaize Bridge from the east: sewage.

The retailers in the area almost certainly cringe every time the wind blows just right, and the City of Osage Beach has been cringing every time they get a bid to fix the project.

Here's what happened...

In September of 2022, a sinkhole broke a sewer main line leading to one of the city's largest lift stations.

“Everything from Tan-Tar-A to Margaritaville, all the way up the parkway and everything on the west side of the bridge goes through that station,” Assistant City Administrator Mike Welty told Lake Expo in 2023.

The break was temporarily repaired by an above-ground bypass (rather than a typical underground line). The old line had been destroyed by the sinkhole, and the damage would have made it twice as expensive to run a new stretch of line in the same path as the old one.

The City of Osage Beach began planning a permanent solution for the broken line on a new route, but delayed partly due to easement negotiations, the approvals to get the main line repaired moved slower than... well... sludge through a broken sewer pipe.

And that's not all. Mayor Michael Harmison told Lake Expo an initial inspection indicated only a single sewer line was feeding into that station. So the city paid for a large concrete basin to be installed, to hold the sewage, with a plan for handling the smell. But during the process, it was discovered this station has two lines feeding into it, so a new concrete basin had to be ordered.

That basin is expected to be in the ground in May or June, and Harmison says the city has purchased a device called a Vapex, which utilizes ozone to neutralize the odors. The device was around $150,000, he said, so the city wants to try this one and see if it works as well as they expect; if it does, the city may look into buying Vapex units for other sewer substations.

Long story short...

This project was backed up for a long time, but things are finally moving down there, and it looks like 2024 will finally bring some relief.

4. That Insane Traffic Situation In Camdenton

Needs... Fixed, Somehow

Driving on Highway 54 from Osage Beach into Camdenton? Time it right, and you can listen to an entire episode of your favorite long-form podcast.

This is clearly more than just a "school traffic at 3:30 p.m." problem. The quagmire of traffic lights, left-turns into major businesses, and the intersection of the two most significant highways in the entire Lake area are all contributing factors.

Time to clean up that intersection. Hey MoDot, you got that (unconstitutional) increase to your budget. We'd love to see some of it spent here. And just to get the creative juices flowing, here's our suggestion: a giant roundabout!

Honestly we don't know what's the best fix for this problem. But it's a real one, it's not getting better on its own, and unfortunately we don't know of any near-term plans to alleviate it.

Thankfully, it looks like most of the Lake's major infrastructural woes will receive some major improvements this year.

So just for fun... here are couple more we'd improve if we had a magic wand:

Highway 42

This road is a major thoroughfare to the Lake and the only avenue to the largest airport at the Lake, but it feels like a carnival ride.

And after dark?

Driving Highway 42 after dark — for drivers not overly familiar with the road (and who are always being tailgated by drivers who are) — is just a steady stream of jumpscares.

Highway MM

Same as Highway 42. This is a pretty critical artery, connecting to some of the Lake's most developable-and-developing high-end communities and a primary connector between the Lake's west side and east side (via the Community/Toll Bridge).

But every time you drive MM, it seems like somebody added a new blind hill or curve... or a blind hill combined with a curve. Also there are basically no lights on this road.

How did any road engineer ever approve this? If Shawnee Bend is the future of development at the Lake, Highway MM has got to be fixed.

Ok, we did the actual hard work of having the ideas. Now some folks just need to get busy doing it all. Easy!

Ready set go!