With an unanimous vote Wednesday, the four-member Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission sent voters a list of projects that would be constructed using funds from Constitutional Amendment 7.
The amendment, scheduled for the Aug. 5 ballot, would create a three-fourths cent sales tax that would generate an estimated $4.8 billion for transportation and infrastructure improvements in Missouri. The tax, if approved in August, would last 10 years.
Commission chairman Stephen Miller, Kansas City, called the upcoming vote the "most important decision regarding the state's transportation future in a generation."
Missouri Department of Transportation Chief Engineer Ed Hassinger said in his presentation to the commissioners that the finalized list of more than 800 projects includes everything from four major bridges over the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, 330 smaller bridge replacements and rehabilitations, 3,255 miles of road resurfacing including 749 miles of new roadway shoulders and 31 interchange and intersection improvements.
In Mid-Missouri, there are 69 road and bridge projects included in the finalized list.
Most notable in those projects are the expansion of Interstate 70 from four to six lanes throughout Missouri at a cost of more than $823 million, making it the most expensive project in the state. The transportation agency's cost estimates include the cost of construction, engineering fees, any necessary utility relocation and the rate of inflation.
In a news conference after the vote, the commissioners and Hassinger were asked how they were going to construct the additional lanes on I-70 without closing or disrupting traffic on what they have previously called "Missouri's Main Street."
"We are not going to shut the roadway down like we have on other projects (in the past)," Miller said.
Hassinger said the state's transportation agency recognizes the construction on the I-70 corridor is the largest undertaking in recent MoDOT history.
"(The I-70) project is on steroids when compared to other projects," Hassinger said. "We are currently looking not how to build the additional lanes, but how to manage the traffic flow (during construction)."
Officials declined to comment on whether construction of a four-lane Highway 50, with a new bypass around Tipton with additional lanes from Tipton to Morgan County, would be completed first to allow for traffic to use Highway 50 as a detour while I-70 was under construction.
Should voters pass the measure, Hassinger said he would expect to have a timeline and a better idea of how MoDOT would "launch this statewide effort" to construct I-70 and other projects shortly after the Highway and Transportation Commission's next meeting, scheduled for Aug. 6.
One of Jefferson City's major roadways would also be getting expanded. The Whitton Expressway from Clark Avenue to Missouri Boulevard would have an additional lane constructed in each direction at a cost of $17.17 million.
Hassinger said the list is all encompassing of the state's various transportation needs.
"This list provides considerable replacement of Missouri's aging infrastructure in every region of the state," Hassinger said.
The project list is not limited to just roadways, Hassinger said in his prepared remarks to the commissioners. Across the state, 24 airports will see various improvements, seven river ports would benefit from Amendment 7 funds, 14 railway projects including expansion of Amtrak service in Jefferson City, 71 sidewalk and non-motorized traffic improvements. Each county in the state would receive funding to expand its own public transit service by one day a week.
In the finalized list of Mid-Missouri projects are improvements to five airports, including a $4.2 million contribution to Jefferson City Memorial Airport for runway expansion.
Columbia Regional Airport would also receive a combined $14 million for a new terminal, lengthening of the airport's runway and parking lot resurfacing. MoDOT would be making a $1.2 million contribution to the Lee C. Fine Memorial Airport in Osage Beach for a new terminal, parking lot and hangars.
Public transit in the state would also see a boost in funding with the passing of Constitutional Amendment 7. Jefferson City's public transit system, JEFFTRAN, would get $8 million to expand service by four hours each day. Columbia Public Transit would see a similar expansion, but would receive $10.5 million in funding.
Constitutional Amendment 7 would also create a transit service line between Jefferson City and Columbia. The new service would use OATS shuttle buses and would receive $1 million in Amendment 7 funds. The exact plans of this new transit line are still being developed, according to MoDOT.
A contribution of $5 million will be made to the Amtrak Train Station in Jefferson City to fund improvements to the station. Central District Engineer Dave Silvester said those improvements could range from improving handicap accessibility to renovating the station.
Another railway project in Mid-Missouri is Osage County, near Bonnets Mill. According to MoDOT documents, crews would remove the traffic congestion there where the railway and Osage County Road 416 intersect. To remedy this, $5.52 million will be allocated to the project.
Hassinger said the finalized list differs very little from the preliminary draft list released in mid-June.
"The few changes we made fit three themes," Hassinger said. "First, we may have carved out specific projects from money that was just lumped together to address things like public transit. We also had local partners step up to ensure the projects they cared about stayed on the list by offering to match MoDOT's money. Finally, we only took projects off as the various regional leadership considered them to no longer be vitally important."
One project that was left off the draft list but is included on the finalized list is a 10.6-mile expansion of two-lane Highway 54 to a shared four-lane roadway from the small community of Vandiver Village, near Mexico, east to Scott's Corner and the Community R-6 School, south of Laddonia.
Present at the meeting was a coalition of Northeast Missourians who had pushed to get the Highway 54 corridor included on the Constitutional Amendment 7 list. Included in that coalition was Mexico's assistant city manager, Russell Runge.
"We appreciate the last-minute change," Runge said in his presentation to the commissioners. "Improving this corridor positively impacts economic development of the entire state."
In a later interview, Runge said the intention is still to one day see Highway 54 expanded to a four-lane or a shared-four lane roadway from Nevada on Missouri's western border to the banks of the Mississippi River, near Louisiana.
Despite the optimistic tone of the meeting, the commissioners and MoDOT staff all issued some version of a cautionary warning: all 800-plus projects are off of the table if Constitutional Amendment 7 fails at the ballot box.
"The answer is there will be very little preservation work that can be done to Missouri's infrastructure," MoDOT Director Dave Nichols said. "MoDOT would have very limited funds, and roads would continue to deteriorate."
For a complete list of projects, visit MoDOT's website at http://www.modot.org/movingforward/.