MoDOT 5-year plan includes Nodaway bridges
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
This one-lane bridge crossing White Cloud Creek is one of four on Highway 46 west of Maryville, that has been targeted for replacement in a proposed draft of the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Statewide Transportation Improvement Program. The rebuilds are scheduled to take place sometime during the 2019-2020 fiscal year and have a combined construction cost of just over $3.1 million.
An improving economy resulting in increased revenues for the Missouri Department of Transportation is good news for the state’s motorists, the agency announced this week.
According to a MoDOT release, the brighter fiscal outlook will allow the department to expand the scope of maintenance activities related to Missouri’s existing highways and lettered blacktops.
The impact of the anticipated boost in funding is reflected in a draft version of the 2017-2021 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, which was presented to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission on Wednesday.
Over the last two years, only a handful of new projects were added to the rolling five-year plan because of an expected steep drop in MoDOT’s construction budget.
But “changing economic conditions make this year’s STIP more robust,” the release stated.
Rising state revenues, passage of the federal FAST Act late last year, and state efforts to seek federal reimbursement for preventive maintenance activities have all resulted in more funding available for STIP, MoDOT officials say.
Signed into law by President Barack Obama in Dec. 2015, the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act authorizes $305 billion between 2016 and 2020 for highways and other transportation infrastructure.
Consequently, 855 projects were added to the 2017-2021 STIP, which includes $3.97 billion for construction contracts over the next half decade. The majority of projects – 88 percent – are designed to maintain the existing highway system.
In Nodaway County, proposed STIP projects include replacement of four aging bridges, two of which have been reduced to a single lane, west of Maryville on Highway 46.
To the east of Route AB, the bridges include spans over White Cloud Creek and Big Slough. The other two bridges cross twin branches of Florida Creek just to the west of the same blacktop.
The rebuilds, scheduled to take place sometime during the 2019-2020 fiscal year, have a combined construction cost of around $3.1 million.
Other MoDOT work in Nodaway County is to include a stream bank stabilization project on the Nodaway River near the Route C bridge west of Clearmont and bridge-painting projects on Route FF at the South Fork of Clear Creek, Route JJ at the Middle Fork of the One Hundred and Two River, Route U at the One Hundred and Two River near Arkoe, and Highway 71 about two miles north of Route B near Bolckow.
The department also intends to make pavement improvements on Highway 113 between Burlington Junction and Route B near Maitland in Holt County.
All of those projects are scheduled to take place during the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1.
“This year’s STIP allows us to make up a little bit of the ground that we lost the last two years,” MoDOT Transportation Planning Director Machelle Watkins said. “We’ll be able to deliver more safety projects, and we’ll be able to do a better job of maintaining our assets than previously expected. However, some areas of the state will still lose ground on the condition of their roads and bridges.”
Watkins added that Missouri still has “a long-term insufficient funding challenge if Missourians want more from their state’s transportation system,” and that MoDOT lacks the resources to “attack the state’s really big needs,” such as Interstate 70 reconstruction.
The proposed 2017-2021 STIP list is currently available for public review. Anyone interested in seeing the document or offering comments can email [email protected] or call 888.275.6636.
The draft STIP is also available on MoDOT’s website, www.modot.org, and at the department’s district and regional offices. Comments will be accepted through June 10.
Following the public review period, input will be presented to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission prior to its vote on the final STIP document in July.
