All stimulus funding earmarked by MoDOT

Friday was the Missouri Department of Transportation's deadline to earmark all federal stimulus funding for public projects, and MoDOT announced Friday that the department met its deadline.

MoDOT received $30.7 million for public transportation, airport and river port projects, and the federal stimulus bill required state transportation departments to obligate funds - committing them to a specific project - by March 5.

"We worked diligently with the Federal Transit Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration to make sure MoDOT would use every cent of (stimulus) funding available to enhance multimodal services and facilities across Missouri," Brian Weiler, director of MoDOT's Multimodal Operations, said in a news release.

Among the projects funded:

• More than $20 million of funding went to the Multimodal Division, including the purchase of 315 rural transit vehicles and six intercity buses, and improvements to five transit facilities, including one in Marshfield.

• More than $5 million was used for improvements at four small Missouri airports, in Sikeston, Warrensburg, Cape Girardeau and Washington.

• More than $4 million was marked for five port projects, in St. Louis, New Bourbon and St. Joseph, and Cape Girardeau and New Madrid counties.

MoDOT also received $31 million in high-speed rail grants through the stimulus package, which is being used to improve the rail corridor between St. Louis and Kansas City and perform preliminary engineering on six future improvement projects.

More information on the state's recovery-funded projects is at the state Web site.

MoDOT is currently facing difficulty with federal funding, forcing the state to put on hold bid openings scheduled in February and March.

Read more about MoDOT's funding issues in the March 15 issue of SBJ.