Gone are the days when you could go sight seeing on Interstate 229.
The double-decker highway offers panoramic vistas of St. Joseph. To the west, the wide Missouri River arcs around the bend and cuts a lazy path through the tree-covered bluffs. You can see clear across Kansas and almost, it seems, to Nebraska.On the east, St. Joseph rises from the river. It’s like a history lesson to take in the old factories, several of which have been converted to warehouses. Twin Spires pierces the skyline and the unique architecture is a feast to the eyes. Especially at night, the city looks regal and mysterious. While driving the route, I used to slow down to about 40 mph and savor the sights.
Try that these days and you’ll get mowed over.
There’s as much traffic on 229 as … on an interstate, I guess you’d say.
Triumph Foods gets much of the credit for boosting head count on the highway. The Stockyards Expressway made an ideal location for a business that has a 30-minute window for the truck delivery of its raw materials.
One afternoon I was driving up 229 at about 2:30 and got caught in an unbelievable rush of traffic during Triumph’s shift change.
The pork processor, however, isn’t the only reason traffic has picked up.
Albaugh Chemcial has been on a steady growth pace for several years and now has nine full-speed packaging lines for its crop chemicals. Omnium also has busy producing agriculture chemicals.
Farmers are buying lots of chemicals and seed as they prepare for a big planting season. Prices for corn and soybeans are higher than they’ve been in years. Strong demand from the biofuels market is driving farmers to produce large yields this year.
Prepare for more long lines of trucks waiting to deliver the fruits of harvest at Bartlett Grain this fall.
In the Stockyards Industrial Park, Ag Processing Inc.’s biodiesel manufacturing plant is attracting plenty of attention. The city’s other biodiesel plant is located just a stone’s throw off Interstate 229 in the brownfields area.
Terra Bioenergy has begun work on its plant, which will literally be built on the old stockyards. The company even plans to make use of some of Triumph’s animal products to create biodiesel.
More traffic on the interstate means more fuel being used, which contributes to the demand for more ethanol and biodiesel. That will probably lead to even more activity for St. Joe’s ag-based industry.
That’s good news for the region, bad news for site seers.
