Missouri Gov. Mike Parson came to Platte County last week, in support of his “Focus on Bridges” initiative, speaking of improvements to some of the worst bridges in the state.
Parson, accompanied by Kansas City mayor Sly James, Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) director Patrick McKenna and Missouri Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer toured the Interstate 29 bridge over Waukomis Drive on Wednesday, Feb. 13. The bridge, built in 1957, carries more than 88,000 vehicles per day and is rated as “poor” by state inspectors.
That bridge is one of 250 named as part of Parson’s new $350 million proposal to repair or replace aging infrastructure around the state. The estimated cost of replacing the bridge over Waukomis Drive is $5.1 million. The Interstate 29 bridge at Tracy and the Highway FF bridge near Union Chapel Road in Parkville are also slated for replacement in the plan, at estimated costs of $5.9 million and $794,000, respectively.
“Every year we wait to do something on infrastructure, the costs go up, the expenses are going to be more and it’ll be less projects we get to do at the end of the day,” Parson said.
In the proposal, the Kansas City metropolitan area would receive about $73 million in funding for bridge projects. According to James, the influx of state money will allow the City of Kansas City to focus funding to other infrastructure projects – such as the replacement of the Buck O’Neil (formerly Broadway) Bridge.
“If you want your business to expand, if you want your town to grow and you want people to come to this state, you have to have infrastructure in place,” Parson said.
Parson first outlined the statewide bridge infrastructure program in the State of the State address on Jan. 16. Missouri has 922 bridges in poor condition throughout the state, and Parson says this proposal would accelerate the repair or replacement of the worst of those bridges.
The proposal would enable the Missouri Department of Transportation and the Office of Administration to enter a financing agreement to fund 250 bridge projects – bridges that are already programmed for repair or replacement in the state’s current five-year construction program. The proposal is set up to supplement existing transportation revenue with general revenue to pay off the debt. The resolution also calls for the bond proceeds to be deposited into the state road fund – meaning the funds will be constitutionally protected and regularly audited to ensure they are only used for state road and bridge projects.
Missouri Sen. Dave Schatz, of Sullivan, Mo., has proposed a Senate concurrent resolution to establish the program. The resolution recently passed out of committee with no opposition.
According to Federal Highway Administration, Missouri ranked fourth on the nation for bad bridges, with 3,086 considered structurally deficient.
