MoDOT wants to cut down miles to maintain

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri transportation officials will begin pursuing the possibility of transferring ownership of one-fourth of the road miles in the state highway system to cities and counties.

With 32,400 miles, Missouri's state highway system is larger than those in any of its neighboring states and among the biggest in the nation. However, more than 24,000 miles of the Missouri system consists of the "farm to market" type supplemental roads that in most states are the responsibility of local authorities.

Kevin Keith, the Missouri Department of Transportation's chief engineer, said many of those roads aren't a good fit within the state system.

"Some carry quite a bit of traffic, others carry as little as 50 cars a day and dead end at a gravel road," Keith said.

Keith told the Missouri State Highways and Transportation Commission on Wednesday that MoDOT should look to streamline the system by divesting itself of roughly 8,050 road miles.

Keith stressed that shifting responsibility for 25 percent of the state system to cities and counties can only occur through cooperation with local authorities, particularly on the key issue of funding. The details of how -- or if -- that would unfold would have to be thoroughly debated.

"I think there are some efficiencies to be gained here by getting the right roads in the ownership of the right groups," Keith said. "But changing the status quo, quite frankly, will be very difficult to achieve."

During the 1950s, MoDOT assumed control of over 12,000 miles of supplemental roads that previously had been maintained by counties.

Keith said about 7,700 miles of such roads could go back to the counties. Those traveled by fewer than 400 vehicles a day or that don't connect to primary state highways would be targeted for transfer.

Another 350 miles of roads that basically function as city streets should be turned over to municipalities, Keith said.

An example of that group could be Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau, said Scott Meyer, MoDOT's district engineer for Southeast Missouri. While Kingshighway was once part of the main road connecting St. Louis to Arkansas, it today serves primarily as a business loop off of Interstate 55.

Meyer said he will begin talking with local officials about the possible transfer of roads if the highways commission decides to pursue the idea, which at the moment is only being studied.

Opposite direction

However, Keith said about 60 miles of road currently under municipal or county control should become part of the state system. Major arterial roads in urban areas and those that connect state highways to rail and waterway connections are in that group.

The commission did formally agree to assume maintenance of 35 miles of arterial roads in St. Louis city at a cost of $1 million to $1.5 million a year to maintain. While most such roads in other Missouri cities are maintained by MoDOT, none in St. Louis previously were.

Keith said the state takeover is a matter of fairness.

"Right now when you are in St. Louis County these roads are state highways," Keith said. "It is only when you pass an imaginary line that it changes."

Commissioner Duane Michie of Hayti expressed some concern about taking the roads into the state system but ultimately agreed to the proposal.

mpowers@semissourian.com

(573) 635-4608

GOING THE DISTANCE

The amount of road miles in the state highway systems of Missouri and its neighbors and the percentage of total roadways -- state, county and city -- they include: State system Percentage of all roads (in miles) (percent)

Missouri 32,400 26

Kentucky 27,440 35

Illinois 16,420 12

Arkansas 16,320 16

Tennessee 13,760 16

Oklahoma 12,275 11

Kansas 10,390 8

Nebraska 9,980 11

Iowa 9,680 9

SOURCE: Missouri Department of Transportation Southeast Missourian