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PALMYRA, MO. -- It's been several years since improvements were last made to the intersections of local roads in Palmyra and US 61.

Those intersections pose serious safety risks and have been the location of several accidents during the past few months.

KHQA first reported on this problem last month.

According to Paula Gough with the Missouri Department of Transportation, the last improvements that were made have served their purpose, but have now reached their limits.

After dealing with similar issues on US 61 in Lincoln County, MoDOT is now turning its focus back to the Palmyra intersections.

KHQA's Jarod Wells got the details on what you can expect for this KHQA Safe Family Report.

MoDOT NE District Engineer Paula Gough said, "61 is a major highway. It is important to remember that US 61 carries a lot of traffic, but around Palmyra it is a local road to much of the traffic and they use it as a local road."

Roughly 10,000 vehicles pass through Palmyra on US 61 every day. The last improvements made to the intersections of the highway and local roads were alert signs and message boards that were added four years ago.  MoDOT has told local officials that changes are coming to the intersections.

Gough said, "One of our challenges in the Palmyra area is trying to balance the convenience of getting from one side of the highway to the other, but our primary importance is safety."

A safety audit has already been done to look at the traffic flow through the area and see how the intersections can be improved.

Gough said, "Over the last couple of years we've had great success across our own district and across the state with some newer style intersections basically limiting which direction traffic can pull in and out or streamlining how you line up and look at traffic before you pull across."

Surveyors were out Monday, November 22nd getting GPS data to build a topography map that will give engineers the most up to date information to put together a plan for these intersections.

Gough said, "We believe that there are some changes that we can implement in that location and greatly improve the safety as well as maintain traffic flow."

Gough hopes to have a plan ready this winter and hold a public meeting to present the proposal.

That would allow work to begin next summer.