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END OF THE ROAD
PROPOSITION
B DEFEAT IS ROADBLOCK TO MANY AREA TRANSPORTATION PROJECTS.
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By WILLIAM
POE
If it’s true that it’s always darkest just before dawn, then there
may still be hope for area road planners and civic officials who
see last year’s defeat of Proposition B in Missouri as the end of
the road for many area transportation projects.
Just two months after voters last summer rejected Prop B, a $483
million sales and tax increase to fund transportation projects,
Missouri highway officials released a long list of road projects
that, for now at least, are so-much road kill. Miles and miles of
road improvement projects in Franklin County, Jefferson County,
St. Charles County, St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis were
rolled up and dumped in a roadside trash barrel.
And, no matter where you live, one of those projects probably would
have been music to your tires: Highway 21 improvements between Hillsboro
and DeSoto in Jefferson County, Highway 40-61 improvements west
of Highway K in St. Charles County, and Interstate 170 and Highway
367 lane additions in St. Louis County to name just a few of more
than 25 regional projects being held hostage by the Prop B defeat.
Other projects moved from the expressway to the shoulder. Building
a new interstate bridge across the Mississippi River in downtown
St. Louis and rebuilding much of Highway 40 in St. Louis and St.
Louis County are considered to be two of the region’s most important
transportation projects and, while some planning work is continuing,
both projects have been kicked out of the fast lane.
“There’s
a fair amount of work being done on the technology
side for improved traffic control systems. We will
soon be seeing some of the benefits to better manage
the traffic we have.”
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Les
Sterman
executive director,
East-West Gateway Coordinating Council
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That’s the good news. Even worse was the plan of the Missouri Department
of Transportation to shift up to $88 million a year in regional
highway funds to outstate areas (a united St. Louis regional effort
helped avert this dire level of funding shift), a war of words between
the governor’s office and MoDOT, and an uncertain future for federal
transportation funding after 2004.
Nearly forgotten with the defeat of Prop B was the loss of investments
in Bi-State Transit’s MetroLink and bus operations and expansion.
“The biggest victim was the transit system,” says Les Sterman, executive
director of the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council, which prioritizes
the region’s transportation projects.”
“The
new Mississippi River bridge is the No. 1 project
for road planners on both sides of the river.”
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Bruce
Holland
president, Holland Construction
Illinois caucus chair,
Forward Metro St. Louis coalition
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So, is the sun ever going to shine again over Missouri roads and
light rail? And how about Illinois?
“There are still lots of projects going on,” Sterman says. “A common
misconception of Proposition B was that its defeat would be the
end of highway construction. That’s not really true. A host of projects
will be completed in the next few years.”
Area motorists, Sterman says, probably won’t notice a significant
drop-off in construction activity until 2004. “Even after that,
we’ve got the budget to do some things.”
The Prop B defeat, Sterman adds, won’t affect MetroLink’s line extension
through Clayton and Shrewsbury. That expansion project is being
funded locally with bonds and an additional 1¼4 percent mass transportation
sales tax passed in 1993 in the City and the County.
Illinois road funding is, of course, unaffected by the Missouri
Prop B flameout, but some of that state’s road projects are also
feeling the fallout.
“The new Mississippi River bridge is the No. 1 project” for road
planners on both sides of the river, says Bruce Holland, president
of Swansea, Ill.-based Holland Construction and the Illinois caucus
chair on the Forward Metro St. Louis coalition. Holland says that
some Illinois road projects, such as the planned reconstruction
of Illinois Route 3 between the cities of Venice and Sauget, are
tied to the proposed new bridge span. Illinois, adds Holland, will
have the money to build its approaches to the new bridge, but Missouri
may not. “The real concern is whether Missouri will have the money
to do its portion of the bridge and needed connections on its side.”
Other transportation priorities on the East Side, Holland says,
include renovation of the now-closed McKinley Bridge, completion
of the widening of Routes 157 and 159, lane additions to Interstate
64, Illinois Route 3 reconstruction, additional capacity on I-270
near its Mississippi bridge, and eventually the construction of
an outer belt to the east of I-255, an existing highway, which would
become the inner belt. A non-road transportation priority is the
extension of MetroLink to Scott Air Force Base and MidAmerica St.
Louis Airport.
BARRY
H. BERACHA
CEO, Sara Lee Bakery Group vice chairman, joint Civic
Progress/RCGA Private Sector Infrastructure Council |
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In addition to the proposed new interstate bridge over the Mississippi,
the most notable Missouri high-priority projects being slowed or
detoured by the defeat of Prop B are the planned reconstruction
of Highway 40 (I-64) between Tower Grove Ave. in St. Louis and Spoede
Rd. in Frontenac and improvements to Highway 21, where numerous
fatal accidents over many years have earned the roadway the epithet,
Blood Alley. Before the Prop B debacle, planners had hoped to fast
track the original 10-year Highway 40 reconstruction timetable.
Now, they just hope to keep the project moving.
“It’s much more problematic to fast-track Highway 40 now,” Sterman
acknowledges. “You need assurances that the money will be there.”
Part of those assurances depend on the federal government, which
is considering a new six-year transportation funding bill beginning
in 2004. Fortunately for this region, Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond,
R-MO, is the new chairman of the senate Public Works subcommittee
on transportation and will play a lead role in the allocation of
state shares of federal gas tax proceeds.
No matter the source, area leaders vow to come up with money sufficient
to meet the region’s most pressing transportation needs. “This remains
an important issue for the St. Louis area and all of Missouri,”
says Barry H. Beracha, CEO of the Sara Lee Bakery Group and vice
chairman of the joint Civic Progress/RCGA Private Sector Infrastructure
Council. “We will continue to try to work with the governor and
the leaders of the legislature and others in the community on ways
to get a proper focus and sufficient resources on what is required
to catch up on the highway and other infrastructure needs of the
State of Missouri and the St. Louis area.”
While Missouri officials say they are now forced to spend a higher
percentage of available road dollars on maintenance than on new
construction, Sterman says that’s not all bad.
The Gateway Guide system—a network of cameras, traffic sensors and
message boards—is continuing to improve traffic flow in the St.
Louis region, Sterman says.
“There’s a fair amount of work being done on the technology side
for improved traffic control systems,” Sterman says. “We will soon
be seeing some of the benefits to better manage the traffic we have.”
Holland says that, thanks to the broad authority granted East-West
Gateway, the area’s priority transportation projects will eventually
obtain funding.
“It’s just a matter of when,” Holland says.
William V. Poe is principal of Poe Communications, a St. Louis
advertising and marketing communications firm.
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