Unfunded projects are the focus of a public meeting held in Mexico Monday evening between MoDot representatives and community leaders.
The state is ranking what have been unfunded projects in preparation for receipt of additional tax dollars after the Missouri legislature passed a gas tax increase in the last legislative session.
Additional federal monies are also coming into Missouri to help with the projects, including a million dollar study on a shared four lane Highway 54 from Mexico to Louisiana.
Director of the Missouri Department of Transportation Patrick McKenna says what they hear most from planning partners and the general public is pretty basic when it comes to roads.
McKenna told attendees that there are 34,000 miles of roads in Missouri, the 7th largest state roadway system in the U.S. but that more than 7,000 of those miles don’t qualify for federal match funding for projects.
Of those more than 7,000, over 2,000 of them are in the Northeast District.
The projects on the list aren’t just roads and bridges, but also include waterways, rail, and intermodal facilities along with transit systems.
OATS Transit operates in all 17 counties in the Northeast District and will be seeing additional federal funding as part of the infrastructure bill recently passed by Congress.