Jan 23, 2023

State cost share will help two St. Joseph road projects

Posted Jan 23, 2023 7:00 PM

By MATT PIKE 

St. Joseph Post 

Two different road projects in St. Joseph are being assisted in funding thanks to a cost share initiative from Governor Mike Parson.   

The 75-million dollars proposed by the governor were approved during the previous legislative session. 

Northwest Missouri District Engineer Marty Liles the funds help provide assistance in building roads and bridges across the state from the Governor’s transportation fund. 

"They understand that it helps spur a lot of economic development and really helps improve a lot of those roads," Liles tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "So, it doesn't necessarily have to be roads that are maintained by the state and MoDot, it can actually be some other entities cities and counties as well." 

The cost share program is helping fund 28 different projects for the Missouri Department of Transportation.  

Liles says one of those projects locally will be at the intersection of Messanie and AC 

"To do kind of a left turn lane improvement at the intersection of AC and Messanie, along with some other improvements right there, but that's kind of the general portion of that," Liles says.  

The other will be some work on Ag Expo south of 36th street. 

"At the Ag Expo Exchange down to Pickett Road and then also include improvements to Pickett Road and back to the west," Liles explains.  

Liles says these projects could, in theory, get started as early as this summer. 

Several road and bridge projects by the Missouri Department of Transportation are set to be funded thanks to a cost-share initiative by Governor Mike Parson.  

Liles says while cost-share programs for MoDot are common for state funded roads, this initiative is unique.  

"Whereas unique on this one was additional funding cost share coming from the governor's cost share, that 75 million, that didn't need to initially be done on our system if they didn't want to, so that was one of the unique things about that," Liles explains. "So that really helps out a lot of those cities and counties that want to apply for these and have projects and those plans ready to go."