Mid-Missourians can expect to see more than 40 different road and bridge projects over the next five years, worth more than $129 million, based on the state Department of Transportation's five-year plan approved by the Highways and Transportation Commission earlier this month.
But it's not as much work as MoDOT would like to do, Central District Engineer Dave Silvester said last week.
"It's what we can afford," he said. "It's taking care of the system (and) taking care of the infrastructure, keeping (things) in the condition that we already have."
The five-year plan
Each year, MoDOT releases its updated five-year plan - called the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program - for maintaining the state's roads, bridges and other transportation modes.
The plan covers the current state business year, which began July 1, plus the next four years - so the new STIP approved July 11 lists MoDOT's expected work through June 30, 2023.
The newest statewide STIP report, which is 645 pages, lists 1,319 projects which, for the most part, will maintain the system's current condition.
It allots money for improvements to 586 miles of interstate highways, 3,819 miles of other state-owned routes and 172 bridges statewide.
What's the plan for Mid-Missouri?
After the MoDOT reorganization several years ago, which included the department cutting three of its 10 operating districts, the Jefferson City-based Central District now covers 18 counties - including three that have Interstate 70 and another four where Interstate 44 runs.
This story focuses on only 10 of those 18 counties - Cole, Callaway, Boone, Moniteau, Morgan, Miller, Camden, Maries, Osage and Gasconade - and, in some cases, this story doesn't include all of the projects in a county.
Almost all of the projects in the five-year STIP for Mid-Missouri are maintenance work, including 22 projects overlaying existing roads, for an estimated $82.7 million total cost, and 14 projects to rehabilitate - or, in some cases, replace - bridges, for an estimated $15.76 million total cost over the five years.
Many Jefferson City area drivers this year experienced MoDOT's work rehabilitating lanes and bridges on U.S. 54 between the Missouri River and Stadium Boulevard.
The STIP has only a little work in the Capital City in the next couple of years, but in 2020, a contract is planned to rehabilitate the West Main Street bridge over U.S. 54/63, about 30 years after it was built as part of the project that added the eastbound bridge across the river at Jefferson City.
Only one project in the region involves expanding the current system - an estimated $14.14 million project starting next year to build an interchange in Miller County at the current U.S. 54 intersection with Route W - where traffic lights stop and control drivers and their choices.
Those choices include having westbound drivers continue on the main highway, crossing the Osage River and following the expressway through the Lake of the Ozarks region - or turn right off of U.S. 54, then either go left and head across Bagnell Dam to the "Strip" area, or right on Route W, and go along the lake's north shore toward Rocky Mount.
"It's the only stoplight on 54 between Camdenton and Kingdom City," Silvester noted. "Building the interchange is a safety project, because we've had some fatality crashes there."
He noted a public meeting last week about the project drew 61 people who showed overwhelming support for the plan.
Looking down the road
Although they rarely draw attention, each STIP includes "scoping" projects that could eventually lead to contracts being included in a future STIP.
"The fact that they are in the scoping section means they've already been designated as important," Silvester said. "Being in the scoping section allows us to do some preliminary engineering work and begin planning for what might be a very, very future need."
One Mid-Missouri project that's been in the scoping section for several years, he said, is the Route B intersection with Routes M and W in Wardsville.
Area residents have asked MoDOT to improve the intersection, which has St. Stanislaus Catholic Church and School to the south and the Blair Oaks schools complex to the east on Route M - and Route B curving to the right on its way toward Meta.
"We're obviously talking about an area that's been growing" in recent years, Silvester said, noting the addition of businesses like Casey's General Store near the intersection. "(And) you have the heavy truck traffic that goes through there, on its way away from (Diamond Dog Foods in) Meta" to retail outlets around the country and world.
"It's something that's been discussed for many, many years," Silvester said, although funding to pay for changes hasn't been identified nor have officials decided what needs to be done.
"There are multiple things with that intersection, including rights of way issues" because the church complex and several other properties are very close to the existing intersection.
A solution, or alternative solutions, "are things that we haven't identified yet," Silvester said.
In its explanation of the "scoping projects" section, the department clarifies: "Projects listed in this section are not commitments to construct or implement an improvement." Nor does it include the searching and pre-planning that MoDOT engineers, and others, will be doing to determine which projects should be included in future five-year plans.
The 16 Mid-Missouri "scoping" projects listed in the just-approved plan could cost up to $226,000 in future years, the department said.
Among those projects is one identified for Boone County, looking "for intersection safety improvements from Route H (the airport exit) to 1.1 miles north of U.S. 54 in Callaway County."
Depending on what needs are found and how MoDOT officials decide to address them, the project includes a future cost of up to $15,000.
A similar scoping project is planned for U.S. 54 from Route E at Brazito in Cole County to Missouri 242, the new highway that connects U.S. 54 with some businesses along Old 54, and with Four Seasons Village and the Lodge of Four Seasons. Those safety improvements also are estimated to have a future cost from $10,000-$15,000.
MoDOT officials also will study corridor improvements along U.S. 50, from west of California, where the new bypass ends, to east of Tipton - and a separate scoping project from west of Tipton to west of Syracuse.
Although Interstate 70 carries the most traffic of all the highways that Silvester's district oversees, he said in many ways it's the easiest to plan for because most of the work "has become maintaining the surface through overlay projects, and doing bridge rehabilitations."
However, he added, the project a couple years ago to replace five bridges over I-70 in Columbia was complicated, and was the most extensive project with which he's dealt.
And, when it comes to dealing with traffic situations, Silvester said, I-70 and I-44 "can be very challenging corridors."
Non-transportation funding
The STIP also shows MoDOT's financial support for non-highway transportation issues, like buses, airports, rail services and river ports.
In Mid-Missouri, the department expects to spend nearly $117 million in subsidies over the next five years, mainly to bus services like Jefferson City's JeffTran and Columbia's system, as well as to the OATS service that generally carries seniors from their homes to shopping and business appointments in other locations.
The assistance also goes to Fulton's SERVE Inc. and to some private services providing transportation to nursing home patients or mental health center clients.
Every project that gets included in the STIP has been reviewed by numerous partners, he noted, including Regional Planning Commissions and local transportation groups like the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization that looks at traffic and pedestrian needs in Jefferson City, Holts Summit and nearby areas.
The six-member Highways and Transportation Commission approved the STIP on July 11, after giving Missourians a month to comment on it.
Silvester said MoDOT officials always hope the public will affirm "that we're headed down the right path. I know we're not going to get 100 percent, because individuals will have special issues they want us to deal with - like a problem in the highway in front of their home.
"But we work on the things that have the biggest effect, and we don't do that in a vacuum."