By Andy Ostmeyer
Globe Metro Editor
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Improvements to U.S. Highway 71 will continue, but otherwise, Missouri motorists should expect little new construction in Southwest Missouri in the next five years.
Where those Highway 71 improvements will take place is uncertain, too.
Missouri transportation officials last week approved the five-year Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan, but the money isn’t there for much, they said.
The plan contains transportation projects planned by state and regional agencies for July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2015.
“The five-year program is largely a program to maintain the existing system,” Scott Bachman said Friday. He is planning manager for the Missouri Department of Transportation’s district office in Joplin.
Just two years ago, the state was calling for spending $1.3 billion per year on its five-year plan, but that has dropped to $500 million per year as state and federal revenues have dried up.
“We’ve known this grim situation was coming,” Kevin Keith, MoDOT’s interim director, said in a statement released with the new list. “It’s as if we’ve fallen off a cliff.”
The future of work on U.S. Highway 71 will depend to some extent on what happens in Arkansas, Bachman said.
Missouri has set aside $66 million for its share of the proposed Bella Vista, Ark., bypass, but is waiting for Arkansas officials to come up with a means to fund their larger part of the bypass. Bachman said that if Arkansas isn’t able to go forward soon, Missouri could release that money for work on Highway 71 north of the Joplin area.
Highway crews have been upgrading three intersections in Barton County and one in Bates County to interstate standards for the proposed Interstate 49 corridor. Work on those four sites should be finished this summer, Bachman said. But 12 other locations along U.S. 71 between Joplin and Kansas City are still awaiting work and funding.
“When you are in maintenance mode, that means that safety suffers and no new jobs are created,” Rudy Farber, of Neosho, chairman of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, said Friday.
“It’s not just jobs that are related to the construction of the highways. Economic development follows transportation.”
Last year, fewer people were killed in highway crashes in Missouri than in any year since 1950, despite the fact that many more miles are driven on the state’s roads, Farber said. He said spending on highways is part of the reason for that. He specifically cited improvements such as the guard cables in highway medians that have prevented crossover accidents.
“That’s why I am so concerned about the safety aspects of these things,” Farber said. “Those are our sons and daughters out there.”
Bachman said some other projects will be undertaken in the area in the next five years, including:
Work on East 32nd Street near the Flying J truck stop, using a service road to relieve congestion and provide easier access for trucks.
Repairing earthen embankments along Missouri Highway 249 east of Joplin.
Reducing pressure in a short section of Missouri 171 where Missouri 249 merges and traffic is exiting onto Route HH at Carterville.
Scoping
The 2011-2015 “Scoping and Design” list also was issued last week by the Missouri Department of Transportation. It identifies potential future projects that may be in the evaluation stage, called scoping, or may be further along in the preliminary design phase. Projects are not commitments to construct or implement a project.
Among them:
Scoping for a new north-south corridor on the west side of Joplin.
Scoping for roadway improvements from Pineville to the Arkansas state line.
