MoDOT Proposes Closings…But It’s Not Roads

From the Kansas City Star: (emphasis is mine)

MoDOT plan would cut staff 19 percent, close facilities

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/04/2850414/proposed-modot-plan-would-eliminate.html#ixzz1LUrgJnux

JEFFERSON CITY | Missouri’s transportation director on Wednesday proposed cutting 19 percent of the department’s positions, closing facilities and selling equipment in order to devote more money to roads and bridges.

Transportation Department Director Kevin Keith estimated the plan would save $512 million through 2015 by cutting 1,200 staff positions, closing 135 facilities and selling 740 pieces of equipment.

After that, he estimated the changes would lead to about $117 million a year in long-term savings. Keith said Missouri faces a transportation funding crisis.

“This is not easy, but it’s the right thing to do,” Keith said. “I don’t think we have a choice …. We have to get smaller. We have to focus the resources that we have on taking care of our roads and bridges as our first priority.”

Keith presented the proposal to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, which is expected to act on the plan June 8.

To cut staff, MoDOT plans to use attrition and transfers but would use layoffs for any remaining cuts.

The agency also would consolidate 10 regional districts into seven and close district offices in Macon, Joplin and Willow Springs. Officials say district boundaries have changed little since 1922 when mules and wagons were used to fix roads that often were gravel.

Because of declining funding, officials also presented a new five-year construction program of about $600 million yearly — roughly half of spending in the preceding five years.

“It’s very unfortunate for the thousands of people in this city who work in our industry,” said Don Clarkson with Clarkson Construction Co. in Kansas City. “MoDOT at half strength is bad for all of us, including the traveling public.”

Troubles with highway funding in Missouri are not a new issue. Since at least 2006, Pete Rahn, then the Transportation Department director, said the state’s annual highway construction budget would decline significantly by 2010 as proceeds from bonds were passed by the need to pay the debt. Rahn frequently used the metaphor that Missouri’s funding would fall off a cliff.

The funding decline was delayed because of federal economic stimulus money that was approved in 2009.

Keith said Wednesday that money from the bonds and the stimulus program now has been spent.

Bill McKenna, a former state transportation commissioner and the spokesman for the Missouri Transportation Alliance, said the proposed cuts were a natural response to less funding for transportation. The group includes business and labor organization and community leaders and has held meetings throughout the state to discuss funding and planning options to maintain the state’s infrastructure.

“These cuts are painful, they are deep and they will impact every Missourian,” McKenna said. “The cuts highlight the urgent need to resolve Missouri’s transportation funding shortfall.”

Transportation Commission Chairwoman Mary Nichols said commissioners had asked for officials to consider possible changes and were eager for public input on the proposal.

“This plan began and will end with the commission,” Nichols said.