Highway Project Gets New Hope

A highway project that seemed to have died with a tax increase vote in early April might gain new life at the end of the summer. Organizers who want about 50 miles of Highway 36 in northeast Missouri turned into four lanes were dealt a blow when voters in one county, Ralls County, defeated a sales tax measure. State transportation officials had promised to put in $80-Million to $85-Million of Amendment Three money if the tax passed in April. Chief Engineer Kevin Keith says they’ll get another chance at the money if another vote not including Ralls County passes in August, despite the fact that the Amendment Three money will be alocated elsewhere. Keith says there are several options of where to get the money, including borrowing against future federal money or even bonding more of the Amendment Three money that what the department originally said it had to work with.