AASHTO Journal, 1 May 2015
The Missouri Department of Transportation is stepping up its efforts to make sure state residents, and lawmakers who will decide future funding levels, get regular messages about the state’s aging roads and bridges and how the revenue stream to improve them is drying up.
MoDOT has created a special website to provide “updates to Missouri’s road and bridge conditions and any developments in efforts to find additional funding.”
Retiring MoDOT Director Dave Nichols and other department officials have warned for months that the state’s highway construction budget is on course to drop sharply, from $1.3 billion in recent years to just $325 million in fiscal 2017.
Since that would be well below the $485 million it says is needed just to maintain the existing infrastructure, MoDOT has already adopted a plan under which it would maintain “primary” roads in current condition but designate many others for limited maintenance that will not be enough to keep them from deteriorating.
On April 27, just ahead of Nichols’ scheduled May 1 retirement, the department unveiled a website called the “The 325 Report.”
Roberta Broeker, MoDOT’s chief financial officer and the person tapped by Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission to be interim director until a new permanent director is chosen, said the new website “gives engaged citizens a one-stop location for learning about how MoDOT will maintain Missouri’s transportation system as funding levels drop.”
For instance, one page of the new site says that if the Legislature waits until its 2016 session to address the funding issue, any new revenue might not arrive in time to prevent the state from losing some federal matching funds in 2017 and beyond.
“These will be ongoing concerns over the next few years,” Broeker said. “While the funding discussion moves forward with our citizens and legislators, the needs of the system continue to grow.”
That website also has videos, profiles of MoDOT employees, feature stories about Missouri residents, and a “View from the Chair” commentary by Commission Chairman Stephen Miller.