Fate of highways not likely to change soon

The whispered hints at the Missouri Department of Transportation earlier this year have steadily increased into a shout to cities and counties: Take financial responsibility for all these roads!

But the matter of who should maintain thousands of miles of roads built years ago by counties so farmers could get their crops to market -- and then voluntarily taken over in the 1950s by the state -- is a quandary not likely to end soon. With Missouri's budget squeeze at all levels of government, it appears the best course of action would be to leave things as they are for now. It's probably the only possible course of action.

The problem is volume. Missouri's 32,400-mile state highway system is much larger than those in Kentucky (27,440 miles), Illinois (16,420) or Arkansas (16,320). The list of surrounding states drops off from there. Undeniably, the number of state roads in Missouri is relatively high, ranking among the highest in the nation.

Many of those roads see very little traffic -- only 50 cars a day, said Kevin Keith, MoDOT's chief engineer. These roads don't seem like state highways to motorists because of the low usage and the connecting roads. Some of these paved roads dead end or turn into gravel roads.

When MoDOT asks Missourians to support -- that is, pay more taxes -- the state highway system, the department gets turned down time and again at the polling place, usually by a sizable margin.

MoDOT's solution: ask counties to take back 7,700 miles of roads counties maintained half a century ago and ask cities to take on 350 miles of roads that more or less function as city streets. Counties would be asked to take roads traveled by fewer than 400 vehicles a day or those not connected to primary state highways.

An example of a road MoDOT would target for city takeover is Kingshighway, once part of the quickest highway route from Arkansas to St. Louis. With the opening of Interstate 55, Kingshighway has become more of a business loop. Very few people probably realize it's even a part of the state highway system, because it runs through the middle of Cape Girardeau and is packed with businesses on either side.

But would Cape Girardeau take it over voluntarily? Not likely, with the city struggling to provide existing services at a level acceptable to residents and still licking its own wounds from a rejected tax and fee ballot measure.

Cape Girardeau County commissioners are considering the expense the county would incur should they be asked to take over some state roads. This is a basic, preliminary step advisable for all Missouri cities and counties at this juncture.

But getting the cities and counties to agree voluntarily to take over responsibility for the roads it still a matter of conjecture. At a minimum, city and county officials would like to see state funding assistance if they have to maintain more roads.

And lack of funding is the very reason the state wants to reduce the miles of highway under its jurisdiction.

Until there is a significant shift in the state's economy, the idea of shifting roads from the state to cities and counties isn't likely to move very fast.