By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Missouri State Highway Commission has approved the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program for the fiscal year 2023-2027.
The plan program will provide the Missouri Department of Transportation with $10 billion for all modes of transportation over the next five years, starting July 1st,2022.
Northwest District Engineer Marty Liles says this is the most money the program has seen for the program.
"The largest one we've had than ever before, we've got resurfacing of major, minor, and even low volume roads, which is really the first time we've been able to do low volume road resurfacing for quite some time," Liles tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "The other significant thing is that we're doing a significant number of bridges."
MoDOT officials have identified over 150 bridges in the improvement program to do improvements on, whether that be rehabs, rebuilds or surface maintenance.
Liles says the money will help fund many major road projects in the northwest district
"Well, I know we've got some safety improvements on Highway 752 and 59 or Alabama there in St. Joe so that's a huge one," Liles explains "Some other ones that we've got, we've got a lot of resurfacing on I-29, Highway 71, I-35, and Highway 36 is going to get a significant amount of resurfacing on that one as well."
Liles says he's excited about the number of projects being done in his district thanks to the money.
"We've got a lot of issues with the condition of our major highways, our minors, and our low volumes, and the condition of our bridges," Liles says. "So, we are focusing all of our money on what I would say is asset management."
Liles says that simply means taking care of existing roads and bridges in northwest Missouri.
And Liles says what he's most glad to see being done is work on routes that have been identified for low volume roadway resurfacing
"Which before was not able to be done within the existing STIP because of money and a lot of that roadwork had to be done by our maintenance forces only," he says.
Liles says safety improvements will be done on highway 752 and 59 in St. Joseph, as well as resurfacing on I-29, Highway 71, I-35, and Highway 36.
You can see a detailed map of all the projects being done in the northwest district on MoDOT’s website.
