Route 242 was opened Tuesday December 13, connecting motorists from Horseshoe Bend Parkway to the other side of Lake Ozark at the Highway 54 expressway interchange. The two-mile, four-lane highway opens more than a thousand acres of wooded, landlocked land for development.
The new $8.3 million road was funded through a partnership with Missouri Department of Economic Development, Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, the Horseshoe Bend Transportation Development District and the city of Lake Ozark.
The positive economic impact to the entire Lake of the Ozarks is what attracted officials into awarded it a $4 million Community Development Block Grant, which got the project started.
“I see jobs. I see opportunities. I see tourism,” Mike Downing, deputy director of Missouri Department of Economic Development, said.
Route 242 combined with the new Highway 54 through Lake Ozark and Osage Beach have changed Lake of the Ozark’s landscape and the way motorists travel through the area.