MoDOT chief proposes staff, building cuts to fund road projects

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau County would lose a maintenance building, its crew, and some big-ticket transportation projects would be off the table under some tough cuts proposed by the Missouri Department of Transportation for the upcoming fiscal year.

As federal stimulus funds dry up, MoDOT will need to cut about 1,200 positions statewide, shutter three district offices, close more than 100 maintenance facilities and sell more than 700 pieces of equipment, said MoDOT director Kevin Keith. The department's budget is projected to drop by more than half, to $600 million from $1.2 billion, under Keith's proposal.

On Wednesday, Keith presented the state's Highways and Transportation Commission with a five-year plan to maximize funds for road projects. The cuts should save the department more than $512 million in the year to come, and more than $150 million a year for the next five years, he said.

In Cape Girardeau County, a maintenance facility and its crew of four to five employees in Delta would be shut down, leaving the county with two maintenance buildings, according to Mark Shelton, district engineer for MoDOT's Southeast District. A maintenance facility in Perry County also would be closed, affecting five or six employees.

Major transportation ideas for the area would be put on hold, too, Shelton said, as the department changes priorities from expansion and improvement to maintenance projects aimed at holding the transportation system together.

"There's been talk about doing some work on planning possibly a six-lane I-55 from Fruitland to Scott City. We won't be able to do anything like that," he said. "There's been discussion about a new interchange at Kingshighway and I-55; we won't be doing that."

The commission will hold a series of hearings on Keith's recommendations over the next month and will act on them at the next meeting, in early June.

To date, most of the MoDOT's downsizing has happened through attrition, but the proposal will involve layoffs, Keith said. Among the proposed cuts, the plan targets 444 mid-level management positions. In all it will shed 19 percent of the agency's staff.

The district offices to close would be Willow Springs, Macon and Joplin.

About 15 representatives of the city of Willow Springs, led by former state treasurer and congressman Wendell Bailey, pleaded with the board to keep its district headquarters open as a rare source of jobs in an otherwise impoverished area of the state.

Staff writer reporter M.D. Kittle contributed to this report.