MRPC News Release
Dec. 19, 2005
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Bonnie J. Prigge, (573) 265-2993
REGION’S TAC IDENTIFIES TOP NEEDS, SETS PRIORITIES
ST. JAMES—The Meramec Regional Transportation Advisory Committee, during its meeting Dec. 8, selected its highest needs and recommended its top scoping projects in Districts 5 and 9, and this information is being hand-delivered to the Missouri Department of Transportation district offices as MODOT officials and other TAC members come together to set each district’s priorities.
The top needs in District 5, which includes Maries, Osage and Gasconade counties, are:
1. Corridor improvements to Highway 63 in Maries and Osage counties, including widening to Super 2, shoulders and horizontal alignment and building towards a four-lane corridor.
2. Grading and paving for a four-lane Highway 63 from Osage County line to Phelps County line.
3. Corridor improvements to Highway 50 in Gasconade and Osage counties, including widening to Super 2, shoulders and horizontal alignment and building towards a four-lane corridor.
4. Grading and paving for a two-lane relocation of Highway 68 in Maries County.
5. Grading and paving for two new lanes of Highway 42 in Maries County.
The top needs in District 9, which includes Crawford, Dent, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties, are:
1. Alignment improvements on Highway Y in Pulaski County.
2. Extension of Highway 72 at the Highways 72/63 intersection in Rolla to I-44.
3. Corridor improvements to Highway 63 in Phelps County, including widening to Super 2, shoulders and horizontal alignment and building towards a four-lane corridor.
4. Improve the sharp curve on Highway 19 south of Cuba in Crawford County.
The TAC also selected its project scoping priorities. Developing a project is called project scoping and it is the process used to define a transportation need and then determine the solution to the problem.
The top scoping projects in District 5, which includes Maries, Osage and Gasconade counties, are:
1. Environmental study for the Route 63 corridor.
2. Roadway improvements on two disconnected sections of Route 63 between Route 50 and Route P, in Osage County.
3. Interchange and bridge improvements at Highway 100/19 in Hermann.
4. Route 50 resurfacing from near Route 89 to near the Osage/Gasconade counties line to include traffic congestion and safety issues at the Highways CC/50 junction and Linn State Technical College entrance.
5. Bridge replacement on Highway 133 over Sugar Creek in Osage County.
MoDOT is already scoping another project on the TAC’s priority list, that being a bridge replacement on Highway 28 over the Dry Fork Creek in Maries County.
The top scoping projects in District 9, which includes Crawford, Dent, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties, are:
1. Roadway and bridge improvements on Highway 17 north of Waynesville.
2. Roadway improvements on Highway 32 from County Road 605 to Route F in Dent County.
3. Safety improvements at the Intersection of Highways 19/C in Crawford County
4. Roadway improvements on Highway 28 from I-44 to Route C in Pulaski County.
5. Roadway improvements to Route 63 north of Route W in Phelps County.
6. Roadway and safety improvements on Highway 19 from Routes CC/F to I-44 in Crawford County.
7. Roadway improvements to Route 8 from Route 19 near Steelville to Route AA west of Potosi.
On Dec. 14, MRPC Chairman Gary Brown and Executive Director Richard Cavender participated in a District 9 meeting where representatives from all the TACs in the district came together to decide the district’s priorities.
“It looks like all of our District 9 priorities fared well,” Cavender reported, “however, we won’t know until District 9 releases its final list where our projects are in the process, and then the state highways commission will have to consider District 9’s recommendation.”
Cavender explained that the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission must balance the needs of all highway districts. “What actually gets addressed will be dependent upon the availability of funding,” Cavender pointed out.
Cavender and a TAC member will meet with District 5 personnel and representatives from other regional planning commissions later in January to decide District 5 priorities.
In other business at its Dec. 8 meeting, the TAC approved a recommendation to MRPC that it proceed with a grant request for a transit study in the Fort Leonard Wood area. The project would be a collaborative effort involving MRPC, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri Transportation Institute and MoDOT.
Willard “Decky” Finn of Vienna chairs the TAC and serves as the TAC liaison on the MRPC board. Persons needing more information on MRPC’s Transportation Advisory Committee may contact Kelly Sink-Blair at MRPC, (573) 265-2993. The group will meet again in February 2006. Meetings are open to the public.