It was just over 10 years ago that the Barry Road and I-29 interchange area had nearly nothing around it.
The Barry Road and I-29 interchange was only two lanes each way with a single left turn lane. People exiting I-29 from the north had to sit through multiple red light cycles to get onto Barry. MoDOT could care less about doing anything to fix the interchange since it didn't back up traffic on the highway (that policy still exists 10+ years later by the way-see I-29/64th Street).
It made me wonder what life was like for Platte County finances at the time in 2002/2003 since the main gateway for the county was choked by congestion.
I did some internet searching on historical county taxable sales and got nothing from the state of Missouri (thanks department of revenue) so I pulled up the 2004 County budget on page 98 where it listed the universally loved and adored Parks Sales Tax as having collected $5,101,316. I divided that number by 0.5% since that is the sales tax rate for that tax and it turns out that 2003 taxable sales in Platte County were just over $1B at $1,020,263,200.
I did the same thing with the neatly formatted with colored graphs 2013 County budget and looked at page 3 which showed Parks sales tax revenue at $7,626,237. That would mean that taxable sales in Platte County for 2012 were $1,525,247,400. In 10 years, the County taxable sales have grown over 50%. That is some pretty substantial economic growth in the past 10 years.
Now after 10 years, here is what Barry Road and I-29 area looks like.
The interchange and Barry Road look even better in general. Something to keep in mind the next time you only have to wait through one red traffic light cycle versus the 2 or 3 it used to take before the Barry Road and I-29 interchange was fixed.
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