MoDOT delivers annual report, new initiative

The new highway improvement plan, dubbed the smooth roads initiative and launched Nov. 10, uses funds made available from Amendment 3, which passed by a large margin Nov. 2. MoDOT officials said the three-year initiative, part one of a three-part plan, calls for smoother pavement on 2,200 miles, or 60 percent, of Missouri roads, brighter road markings, improved shoulders with rumble strips and safer guardrails.

“Missourians spoke loud and clear when they voted for Amendment 3,” said MoDOT Director Pete Rahn, in a news release. “By an almost 4-to-1 margin, they said they’re not happy with current road conditions, and they want them fixed. Starting today, that’s just what we’re going to do.”

But not all resurfacing in the initiative will be new work, said Bob Edwards, spokesperson for MoDOT’s Springfield district. The department’s goal is for all 2,200 miles identified to be in “good condition or better” by December 2007, Edwards said.

“A good percentage of those main roads have had new surface or rehab projects done in the last five years, so they are in pretty good shape,” he said.

Projects in the Springfield area are still under discussion. MoDOT officials met here Nov. 10 “to start the process of assessing which roads we need to do,” Edwards said.

Edwards expects the local projects will go out to bid in January.

“We’ve got to get going because we’ve got to start working on it when warm weather hits next spring,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of design and planning work to do this winter.”

The annual report, given to the legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation Oversight Nov. 9, details department finances and activities for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2004, along with upcoming project and budget commitments.

Some key points in the report:

• An independent audit of the department’s financial statements gave MoDOT the highest possible rating for the fifth consecutive year.

• The Click It or Ticket campaign helped increase seat belt use in the state by 3 percent, from 73 percent in 2003 to 76 percent in 2004. The increase helped prevent 23 fatalities and 516 injuries and resulted in economic savings of more than $58 million, the report said.

• MoDOT spent more than $24 million to install lights, add rumble strips, put in traffic signals and upgrade intersections.

• Fifty-four percent of Missouri roads and 29 percent of bridges were rated fair or poor.

“We have a big job, and it’s clear to me we do a lot of things right, but we also face many challenges,” he said in a release.

Also in the report, the department expressed concern about a continued lack of adequate funding, citing a decline in MoDOT funds from 17 percent of the state budget 25 years ago to 7.5 percent last year. Missouri’s fiscal year 2005 budget has earmarked 9 percent, or $1.6 billion, for MoDOT. With Amendment 3 approval, MoDOT’s 2005 funds are set to increase to $1.8 billion.

The report’s recommendations for statutory or regulatory changes included a proposal to give MoDOT authority to use state road funds to build and maintain toll roads and bridges. Toll road authority would require a public approval to amend the state constitution.

Looking farther down the road, MoDOT also has received approval for a five-year, $5.8 billion transportation improvement program.