Only one big project in mid-Missouri in MoDOT's five year plan

The state's proposed five-year transportation improvement program, which was presented to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission Wednesday, contains only one major highway project for central Missouri.

Building a new interchange at U.S. 50 and Lafayette Street in Jefferson City is the largest mid-Missouri project included in the proposed program.

That project could start in late 2014.

Most of the other upcoming work includes smaller projects designed to maintain road and bridge condition, such as resurfacing pavement and putting new decks on rural bridges.

MoDOT officials said several years ago, the highway construction program contained over a billion dollars' worth of road and bridge construction projects each year, but a dramatic reduction in transportation funding, however, makes the current program look very different.

"With the decline in funding for transportation, we will be focusing on more routine maintenance projects not just in central Missouri, but statewide," said MoDOT Central District Engineer David Silvester. "Without additional funding, we just won't be able to address many of the project needs that remain."