A proposal to have the Legislature tell the Transportation Department what roads to build under a new construction system has been rejected by the State Senate. The idea would have made road-building a matter of political pull, not – presumably – a professionally-made decision based on various studies. The Senate had been asked to approve three specific pilot projects to test a new way of constructing roads called design-build, a system that has the Transportation Department hire one company to design and also built the road. Sedalia Senator Jim Mathewson says design-build is okay, but the Legislature should keep its hands off. The Senate decides to let the Transportation Department try some design-build pilot projects, to see if they save money and provide qualityroads, but the decision on which roads to build will be by the Department, not the politicians.
