The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission yesterday approved a plan that will reduce the size of the Missouri Department of Transportation, resulting in savings of $512 million by 2015.
The plan, dubbed the Bolder Five-Year Direction, calls for MoDOT to cut 1,200 staff positions, close 131 facilities and sell more than 750 pieces of equipment, according to a MoDOT news release.
The plan
was announced in early May.
“I want to commend the commission for taking thoughtful and decisive action on our plan to become a smaller agency,” MoDOT Director Kevin Keith said in the release. “The process hasn’t been easy, and their decision was a difficult one. But it’s a step that must be taken. We owe it to Missourians to make the best use of the resources we’re given, and this plan puts us on the right path to do just that.”
The $512 million savings would be used for essential road and bridge projects.
Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission Chairwoman Grace Nichols said 115 community briefings on the Bolder Five-Year Direction plan were held through the state in the last month to garner public opinion.
"We considered each and every comment and recommendation and incorporated the changes we believed improved the plan," Nichols said in the release. "But we felt strongly that the move to make MoDOT smaller was the right direction to head.”
Under the plan, MoDOT will:
- close its district offices in Joplin, Macon and Willow Springs, leaving about 70 to 80 engineering, operations, maintenance and support employees under the direction of an area engineer to keep up a MoDOT presence;
- make staff changes through attrition, transfers and, as a last resort, layoffs, up until March 31, 2013; and
- adjust the boundaries of the new seven districts to balance MoDOT's workload.
The plan's implementation has already begun and is scheduled for full implementation by March 2013.
In a separate news release, the Missouri Farm Bureau criticized the ruling, saying the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission acted hastily in their decision.
"Thirty days is simply not enough time for the commission to consider the impact of the proposed changes, especially in light of the fact that our elected officials, community leaders and other interested citizens had no opportunity for input until the plan was announced,” Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst said in the release. “Missouri Farm Bureau is concerned the plan approved ... will have a negative effect on the delivery of MoDOT services to rural Missouri.”
In a
guest column printed in the Springfield Business Journal, Keith spoke to his view that the plan was necessary for MoDOT moving forward.
"The bottom line is we are facing a transportation crisis in Missouri and the inability to match federal funds down the road," he said in the column. "We will continue to be responsive to public needs. We will continue to have a strong, visible presence in every county and in all corners of the state. But with reduced funding, there will be few new construction projects and our focus will be on maintaining existing roads."[[In-content Ad]]
