Commission Maintains Transportation Priorities

Crawford County commissioners on Oct. 22 upheld their list of transportation priorities. 

The county’s No. 1 priority remains adding a left turn lane at Lindberg Road and Highway 19, which has an extensive accident history.

No. 2 on the list remains the intersection of Glassey Road and Heyer Road, which is north of Cuba.

Adding an interchange to the Highway FF overpass in West Sullivan is No. 3 on the list.

Commissioners did not have any new additions to add to the list.

The county has pushed to get the Lindberg intersection funded. In August, commissioners voted to enter into the Traffic Engineering Assistance Program (TEAP), which provides funds for studying traffic issues.

Preston Kramer, of the Missouri Department of Transportation, worked with commissioners and the Meramec Regional Planning Commission to set the priority list.

Projects that are selected during commission meeting are advanced to MRPC’s Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting on Dec. 12. From there, top officials from the MRPC area settle on a list of high, medium and low priority priorities.

The lists are then submitted to MoDOT for consideration in the rolling Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP).

STIP is a five-year list of projects, where the first three years are fully funded and the last two years funded at 50 percent.

Last year, TAC officials chose the Lindberg intersection and a bridge over Cherry Valley Branch on Highway 19 as “high” priorities. 

The top regional priorities were four-laning Highway 63 from Highway 50 in Osage County to the Phelps/Texas County line.

The other project was four-laning Highway 50 from one mile west of Linn to the Gasconade/Franklin County line.

TAC has upheld those two projects as the top priorities for the last several years.

“The vast majority of projects are taking care of the system,” Kramer said, adding this includes overlays, bridges and preservation for bridges. 

Projects must increase safety and/or have an economic benefit.

“You never know when opportunity might present itself,” Kramer said.

During the last session, Kramer said Gov. Mike Parson made further investments along the Interstate 44 corridor. 

$577 million has been allocated, he said. and the Central District had five projects. 

“He picked projects that had been vetted and identified by planning partners,” Kramer said. 

Along I-44, Kramer said the state is looking to break the projects into “bite-sized pieces.’ He pointed out that the state did something similar on Interstate 70 a decade ago.

“We know what the problem is and how much it will cost to fix it,” he said. “We’re about halfway through that study.”

Construction on I-44 will have a “heavy emphasis” on accident reduction.

“There are definitely spots on I-44 with accident hot spots,” Kramer said. “Some spots are not up to today’s standards. The pavement is 50-years-old in many locations.”