The Department of Transportation has created a new website for Missourians to keep up with its reduced highway work plan.
The Transportation Department says its new website will let Missourians keep tabs on the condition of the highway system under MODOT’s decreased budget. (photo courtesy; MODOT’s Flickr page)
The 325 Report is a website where visitors can find information on “Missouri’s 325 System,” a plan the Department adopted in February to focus its resources by dividing Missouri’s highways into primary and supplementary routes. MoDOT says its construction budget will drop to $325-million by 2017. On the website Missourians can see updates on the state’s roads and bridges under that plan, as well as updates on the efforts to secure more funding.
Department Communications Manager Matt Hiebert said the website is broken into five different parts and provides a variety of supporting materials to keep visitors informed. Heibert said the website gives citizens a one-stop location for learning about how MoDOT will maintain Missouri’s transportation system as funding levels drop.
“At the very bottom you’ll also find a lot of supporting documentation that talks about the economic impact of transportation and the importance of acting now,” said Heibert. “We’re at risk, we’re losing about $400-million in federal funding in 2017 if we don’t come up with a solution to match these funds.”
The Department’s current plan would focus its funds on nearly 8-thousand out of the 34-thousand miles of roads in the state. MoDOT will maintain primary roads that connect cities across the state while supplementary routes will only receive routine maintenance.
Hiebert said changes to Missouri’s roads and bridges are consistently being updated.
“The system updates and the changes in the condition are happening very rapidly, so we’ve been putting them up an average of one or two per week since the site has launched,” said Heibert.
Heibert said MoDOT will be frequently updating the website, but it also wants to hear from Missourians.
“We’re going to be adding a new feature called ‘tell your story’, which will allow visitors to the website to tell us their transportation story and how transportation affects their lives, their businesses, and the safety of their travels,” said Heibert.
