Nixon orders state to help plow local roads

Friday, February 4, 2011

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has ordered the state Department of Transportation to help 44 counties clear their roads following this week’s winter storm.

The storm dumped as much as 20 inches of snow in some parts of the state on Tuesday and Wednesday and freezing rain in other areas. A spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Transportation had said before Nixon’s order that plowing the state’s highways has cost about $5.5 million so far.

Nixon described his county road-plowing directive as an unprecedented action.

MoDOT makes clearing the roads a priority in a storm and would not cut back on plowing even if it went over its $42 million budget. The department would likely make cuts to other maintenance costs in the spring or summer.

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MK 2 years, 3 months ago

I gotta hand it to all the State workers who put in one whale of an effort to clear our roads here in Mid Mo. They did a fantastic job and did it incredibly quick. I think they've went above and beyond all reasonable expectations with the size of the storm they had to deal with. Much kudos to the superb planning and execution and the extra hours all these people put in to get it done. I am impressed to say the least.

dinger 2 years, 3 months ago

That’s an interesting order since he has no authority over Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) as they are according to Missouri constitution under the authority of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission (MHTC) which does not answer to the Governor. Guess he figures he can bully them by declaring an order, or suggestion would be a better way of putting it, and hoping no one remembers who controls who.

Our Governor wants to work the MODOT employees even harder and sacrifice their equipment for counties that probably won’t even pay for the use of the equipment, overtime, or repairs. More snow is on the way in a couple of days and if MODOT people are wore out and the equipment breaks helping the counties then who will help MODOT? Also if they are working on the counties roads will they be allowed to break of to take care of the state roads if they get bad, as is their first priority? What this gets down to is setting a very bad precedent by our governor trying to order MODOT to do what they are not setup to do. I personally urge the MHTC to reject the governors “suggestion” and not send personal and equipment to do the counties jobs.

By the way MODOT has done a great job and if you don’t think so travel the Will Rogers Turnpike in Oklahoma where there version of removing snow after three days (today) are lanes still covered with ice and in many places one lane. If you get over 40 you will shake your vehicle and yourself to death and yes you still have to pay to travel on it. Yes ODOT is a very sad excuse for a transportation department so we should be proud of how MODOT did during this latest storm.

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