Jonestown at the Missouri Highway Dept.

[Fovea]

While shutting down any help to the lightest energy footprint transportation modes (bike and ped), MoDOT* has decided to go out in a blaze of glory, having gotten funding for a final burst of highway projects.

http://www.modot.mo.gov/newsandinfo/District0News.shtml?action=displaySSI&newsId=18179

<snip>
Five-Year Transportation Program Includes Last Hurrah of New Projects
New Major Projects Added

JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri's proposed five-year transportation improvement program includes a last hurrah of new transportation projects before plummeting to a program where limited funding will only cover minimal maintenance and safety work.

The 2009-2013 transportation program includes $300 million in new construction projects because lower than expected interest rates provided additional Amendment 3 bonding capacity. The $140 million bonded amount, combined with state savings from using Practical Design on projects and local matching funds, allows the Missouri Department of Transportation to tackle these new highway projects over the next five years, including additional lanes, interchange improvements and congestion relief.

"While it's great news to be able to pursue this additional work, we can't overlook the fact that in this program the Amendment 3 bond proceeds are used up, and our state transportation program goes back to critically low spending levels," MoDOT Director Pete Rahn said. "The program we're proposing marks the shift from having the opportunity to build new projects to barely maintaining what we have."

</snip>

MoDOT* is violating the first law of holes, first codecil: When you find yourself in a hole, cancel the order for the big steam shovel.

I guess they want Missouri to graduate from number 5 in highway miles in the nation to number 4 before they die of tax revolt and demand destruction.

I have seen this plotline before, as the last of the crank runs out, the two crazed speedfreaks decide to shoot up the last of it and then rob the git and go.

Note that this document, straight from the 'we make our own reality now' community offers 23mil to buy a single road right of way, and only 5 mil for desperately needed Amtrak upgrades.


* They have been forced to use the name MoDOT, but they never forget that they are the same old Mo Highway Dept.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. They also need to get rid of the damn billboards

MO is the worst, IMO.