Cyclists, pedestrians and drivers on Hepperman Road could soon see a very different stretch of pavement between Golf Club Drive and Interstate Drive. The St. Charles County Highway Department is proposing a batch of safety upgrades for the corridor, including new bike lanes, sidewalks and a standalone pedestrian bridge over Peruque Creek.
The plans call for restriping Hepperman Road to create a shared shoulder and bike lane with a one-foot buffer separating cyclists from vehicle traffic, according to a St. Charles County Missouri - Government post on Facebook. The project also includes five-foot-wide sidewalks along the west side of the road, giving pedestrians a dedicated path that doesn't currently exist along that stretch.
A New Crossing Over Peruque Creek
One of the more notable pieces of the plan is a standalone prefabricated pedestrian bridge that would span Peruque Creek just north of the existing Hepperman Road bridge, according to the same post. The county also plans to widen the shoulder pavement at the existing bridge so it matches the width of the surrounding roadway, addressing a pinch point where the road narrows.
Together, the changes are meant to give walkers and cyclists a safer, more continuous route through the corridor rather than forcing them to share narrow shoulders with cars, per the county's announcement.
How Residents Can Weigh In
St. Charles County has opened a public comment period on the proposal that runs from Monday through Nov. 17, 2026. Residents can review project materials and submit feedback through a form posted at sccmo.org/heppermanmultimodal, the county said.
The Hepperman Road corridor has been on the county's radar for improvements before. Back in July 2024, the county invited Wentzville-area residents to a public information meeting about a separate phase of the Hepperman Road project, one that focused on reconstructing the road surface and drainage, improving sight distance, widening driving lanes, adding paved shoulders and building a sidewalk on the west side, according to a county notice at the time. That earlier phase carried an estimated price tag of $3.14 million, funded through the county's half-cent Transportation Sales Tax and a Federal Highway Administration grant, according to the county's project page for Hepperman Road Phase 2. It's unclear whether that cost or funding source carries over to the newly announced safety improvements, since the available records don't connect the two directly.
Timelines for that earlier phase also varied depending on the source. The county's Hepperman Road Phase 2 project page said right-of-way acquisition was expected to begin in early 2025 to allow for a late 2025 or early 2026 construction start, while the county's July 2024 announcement had anticipated a fall 2025 construction start. The earlier project also went through its own public input process, with an online comment period running from July 25 through Aug. 8, 2024, and an in-person meeting held on July 25 of that year, the county's project page states.
Part of a Broader Safety Push
The Hepperman Road proposal fits into a larger county effort to cut down on serious crashes. St. Charles County's Strategic Highway Safety Action Plan sets a goal of reducing fatal and serious-injury crashes by 50% by 2030, with a longer-term target of eliminating them entirely by 2050, according to the county's safety plan. That same plan notes that roughly 900 people die in motor vehicle crashes across Missouri every year.
No construction start date, completion timeline or cost estimate has been released for the newly announced Hepperman Road safety improvements. For now, the county is focused on gathering public input before the comment window closes Nov. 17.
