Innovation Description and Benefit:

It is standard practice at MoDOT to host public meetings to engage the local communities when you have a project that will close a road/bridge during construction.  Due to the ongoing pandemic, it has been advised to hold public events virtually or outside if possible.  While the virtual public meeting was an option, due to the local community the project team determined that it would be beneficially to offer an in-person venue.

 While the project team did provide a virtual public meeting option, we looked for alternative options to safely engage the community.  As a result, we requested permission to host an outdoor in-person meeting at the park pavilion adjacent to the project location.  The large outdoor pavilion provided a safe option for that meeting, allowing plenty of room for social distancing – we had hand sanitizer, masks and two sets of displays to spread out attendees.