Joplin scores $5.8M in highway funds

U.S. Sen. Jim Talent announced the appropriation at Joplin's City Hall for the $15 million Zora and Main streets intersection project. Talent worked with U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt to secure the funding in the 2006 Transportation/HUD Appropriations Bill, according to news releases.

Joplin plans to build a bridge connecting east and west Zora Street at North Main Street, also known as Missouri Highway 43.

Joplin officials said the intersection was a priority identified in the Zora Corridor Study in 1998. Taxpayers in August 2004 approved the project and 18 others in a three-eighth-cent capital improvement sales tax referendum. Work could begin as early as next year.