Transportation Archives

Parson: rebuilding collapsed railroad bridge in north Missouri is critical (AUDIO)

October 15, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

Rebuilding the heavily-traveled Norfolk Southern railroad bridge in northern Missouri’s Brunswick is a priority for Governor Mike Parson, who toured the area last week.

The National Weather Service (NWS) Missouri Basin River forecast center says backwater from flood debris caused a rail bridge to collapse in northern Missouri’s Brunswick (October 2, 2019 graphic courtesy of NWS Twitter page)

Parson says crews can’t even get to the area yet.

“We’re still just now now repairing levees from back earlier (this year), but the bridge is going to take a priority,” Parson says. “We’re going to try to get that bridge back up and running.”

The bridge washed out two weeks ago today on October 1, after a debris strike caused by heavy rainfall. Governor Parson tells Missourinet that Brunswick residents can’t catch a break.

“And we’ve been fighting this (flooding) since March 11 and still continue to fight it up there, and we’re just doing everything we can to try to help those people up there, but it’s tough right now,” says Parson.

There were no injuries in the bridge collapse.

Parson says his “heart goes out” to farmers in that area, noting that it’s been a difficult year with massive flooding. He says even when the waters recede, it will be a long way before things get back to normal.

The governor says state officials are doing everything they can to get needed resources to Brunswick, a small farming community between Carrollton and Moberly.

Governor Parson spoke to Missourinet on Friday, after a ceremony at the Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) in Jefferson City. The governor reminded a Missourinet reporter that they had spoken about a drought in the Brunswick area, just one year ago.

Meantime, Norfolk Southern has suspended freight train service between Moberly and Kansas City along that route, because of the collapse.

Virginia-based Norfolk Southern operates in 22 states, including Missouri. Their website says they are “a major transporter of industrial products” like chemicals and agriculture.

Click here to listen to Governor Mike Parson speak to Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and Brownfield’s Julie Harker after an October 11, 2019 ceremony at the Missouri Department of Agriculture:

40,000 expected to pack mid-Missouri town for popular pumpkin festival

October 11, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

Thousands of people are expected to pack the tiny mid-Missouri town of Hartsburg for this weekend’s popular Pumpkin Festival.

Children enjoy the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival (2018 file photo courtesy of Festival website)

This is the 28th annual Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival. Festival treasurer and parade coordinator Jeri Cooper tells Missourinet they’re expecting about 40,000 people to attend the event, which takes place Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday morning’s parade begins at 9.

Hartsburg is in Boone County, between Columbia and Jefferson City. Its population is about 100.

The Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival started in 1991 as a celebration of the pumpkin and the promotion for Hartsburg, which is known as “The Garden Spot of Boone County” for its rich Missouri bottom soil. Some of the most productive farmland in the state can be found there.

Hartsburg produces fruits and vegetables as well.

The event, including parking, is free. With thousands of vehicles coming into the small town, most people will park in area fields, and others park along the roadside. The festival will be operating trams and shuttles.

Organizers also encourage you to bring cash to the festival, since some vendors don’t access debit or credit cards.

Traffic will be heavy along Highway 63. Mizzou’s 108th Homecoming is also taking place Saturday in Columbia, with thousands of people heading there.

You can find more information about the pumpkin festival here.

Fatality rate on rural American roads is double that of urban roads, Chao tells St. Louis audience

October 8, 2019 By Missourinet Contributor

(This story is written by Missourinet St. Louis contributor Jill Enders)

ST. LOUIS- The U.S. Transportation Secretary traveled to St. Louis on Tuesday to unveil a new initiative aimed at addressing disparities in transportation infrastructure in rural America.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao speaks to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation officials in St. Louis on October 8, 2019 (Jill Enders photo)

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao delivered the keynote address at the annual American Association of State Highway and Transportation officials meeting, which is taking place at the Marriott St. Louis Grand Hotel. She emphasizes that the fatality rate on rural America roads is twice that of urban roads.

Chao has announced a new program called the Rural Opportunities to Use Transportation for Economic Success initiative, which is known as R.O.U.T.E.S.

“Rural America, which has a disproportionately high rate of fatalities and is historically neglected, needs to have its transportation needs addressed,” Chao tells the audience.

“We will bring together leaders and staff in key infrastructure modes – highways, aviation, transit and railroads, to examine grant programs’ potential to better support the nation’s critical rural transportation infrastructure,” Chao adds.

The main focus of her address was the high rate of traffic fatalities in rural America. Secretary Chao cites numerous transportation safety statistics.

“Rural communities and their transportation networks are vital to our nation. 69 percent of the nation’s lane miles are in rural areas. Two-thirds of rail freight originates in rural areas. But rural transportation infrastructure is challenged by disparities. The disproportionate rate of crash fatalities in rural areas is especially alarming. 19 percent of Americans live in rural areas. Yet, 72 percent of large truck occupant fatalities, 67 percent of pickup occupant fatalities and 58 percent of SUV occupant fatalities occur in rural areas. The fatality rate on rural roads is twice that on urban roads,” Secretary Chao tells the audience.

She’s also announced the formation of a rural transportation infrastructure council to lead this initiative. It will be called the ROUTES Council.

This new internal deliberative body at the Department will identify critical rural transportation concerns and will coordinate efforts among DOT’s different modal administrations. The Council will also create a rural resources handbook and will hold its first meeting in November.

Elaine Chao served as the U.S. Labor Secretary from 2001-2009 under President George W. Bush, and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s website notes she is the first Asian-American woman to be appointed to the President’s cabinet in American history.

The U.S. Transportation Department was established by Congress in October 1966.

Libla: a user tax for Missouri transportation is still a conservative position (AUDIO)

October 8, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

The chairman of the Missouri Senate Transportation Committee supports a gasoline tax increase, saying that our roads and bridges must be funded adequately.

State Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff, speaks on the Missouri Senate floor on January 10, 2019 (file photo courtesy of Senate photographer Harrison Sweazea)

State Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff, chairs the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety committee. He tells Missourinet we’ve funded roads and bridges for 95 years in Missouri with a gas tax.

“Back in the day when I first became a Republican, a user tax was a conservative Republican position,” Libla says. “And I still believe so today. I think those who use the roads should help pay for them.”

Missouri’s 17-cent per gallon gas tax has remained the same since 1996. Voters rejected a proposed ten-cent gas tax increase in November.

Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe (R) notes Missouri has the seventh-largest infrastructure system, but ranks 49th in funding.

Libla, who represents eight southeast Missouri counties, emphasizes that local officials help to decide key projects.

“We have planning commissions all over this state, so it’s not just a few people deciding where a new road or a new intersection goes in or a new four-lane or whatever,” says Libla.

He says transportation is critical for both urban and rural residents, noting Missouri’s $88 billion agricultural industry is the state’s top industry.

Meantime, Chairman Libla says the heavily-traveled stretch of Highway 50 between California and Sedalia in mid-Missouri needs to be four-laned. He says it’s similar to some highways in his sprawling district.

“It’s two-lane, you have some people wanting to drive the speed limit, you have some who want to drive 15 mile (per hour) under it. And you get a lot of backup, people get impatient, so on and so forth,” Libla says.

The state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) included the Highway 50 project from California to Sedalia in the August 2014 ballot measure known as Amendment 7, which was defeated at the polls. At that time, MoDOT estimated it would cost $122 million to four-lane that stretch.

MoDOT also notes that the central district planning partners have identified the next segment of Highway 50 as an unfunded priority. The segment, which is from California to Tipton, would cost about $44 million.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff, which was recorded at the State Fair in Sedalia on August 15, 2019:

Train service across north Missouri suspended, after Brunswick railroad bridge collapse

October 3, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

(News director Bob Ehle at Missourinet Moberly affiliate KWIX contributed to this story)

Norfolk Southern has suspended freight train service between northern Missouri’s Moberly and Kansas City, because of the collapse of the heavily-traveled railroad bridge over the Grand River in Brunswick.

Brunswick is a farming community, between Carrollton and Moberly.

The bridge washed out Tuesday evening, after a debris strike caused by heavy rain. Brunswick emergency management director Brent Dickerson tells our Moberly affiliate KWIX (AM 1230) that trains could be re-routed.

“I did talk to one of the (train) engineers and I believe that they’re trying to run the railroad tracks from like Mexico, Missouri around to a different rail just north of Marshall, between here and Marshall,” Dickerson says.

There were no injuries in the collapse. Chariton County authorities have set up barricades, to keep boaters away from the area.

“A lot of decisions to be made with the bridge, do they go up (or) down, do they move it a little bit or what,” says Dickerson. “The city is trying to work the best they can trying to keep everything open for them or if we need to close streets or whatever we need to do.”

Brunswick marine access remains closed for safety reasons. The National Weather Service (NWS) Missouri Basin River forecast center says backwater from flood debris helped cause the bridge to collapse. The logjam collapsed the train tracks.

Virginia-based Norfolk Southern operates in 22 states, including Missouri. Their website says they are “a major transporter of industrial products” like chemicals and agriculture.

Kehoe: “We’ll see what Missourians think is the appropriate response” on transportation (AUDIO)

October 3, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

The state’s lieutenant governor says Missourians will have to decide whether a gasoline tax increase is needed.

Missouri Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe (left) and Governor Mike Parson wave to supporters at Jefferson City’s Memorial Park on September 23, 2019 (photo courtesy of Kehoe campaign)

Missouri’s 17-cent gasoline tax has remained the same since 1996. Last November, voters rejected a proposed ten-cent gas tax increase.

At his campaign announcement last week at Jefferson City’s Memorial Park, Lieutenant Governor Mike Kehoe (R) told the audience that a long-term solution is needed for transportation. Missourinet asked him that night if a gas tax increase is on the table. Kehoe says Missourians will have to decide that.

“As you know, our Hancock Amendment prohibits the Legislature from coming up with that solution, that’s probably a good thing most days,” Kehoe says. “So we’ll see what Missourians think is the appropriate response.”

Missourians approved the Hancock Amendment in 1980. It’s named after the late Springfield businessman Mel Hancock, who was elected to Congress several years later. The Hancock Amendment essentially requires voter approval before taxes can be increased by lawmakers, beyond a certain annual limit.

Kehoe says a long-term solution is needed, for the safety of Missouri families and for the reliability of our businesses.

“When you have the (nation’s) seventh-largest infrastructure system and you’re 49th in funding, it doesn’t take long to figure out you need a long-term solution. We’re all willing to listen to what Missourians think is the most reasonable approach to that, and then we’ll figure it out,” says Kehoe.

Lieutenant Governor Kehoe campaigned for Proposition D, the proposed gas tax increase, last fall. He spoke in September 2018 at the 84th annual Missouri Municipal League (MML) conference in Branson.

“What the mayors here (at the Branson conference) understand is they couldn’t run their city budgets and Missourians couldn’t run their household budgets if they didn’t have any extra income for 22 years straight,” Kehoe said that day.

The state Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has said that if voters had approved Proposition D, it would have generated about $288 million annually in new road and bridge funding.

Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and Lt. Governor Mike Kehoe, which was recorded on September 23, 2019 at Jefferson City’s Memorial Park:

(VIDEO) “A project of national significance”: Rocheport one of 250 bridges to be replaced

October 2, 2019 By Ashley Byrd

Governor Mike Parson, surrounded by local, state and national legislators, announced the success of his plan to replace 250 bridges around Missouri– including the $238 million 1-70 Rocheport Bridge.

On a bluff overlooking the bridge and the Missouri River, Sen. Roy Blunt joined the governor in explaining the work it took to get the money needed.

Backwater from flood debris causes rail bridge to collapse in north Missouri’s Brunswick

October 2, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

(Program director Brad Boyer at Missourinet Moberly affiliate KWIX contributed to this story)

Authorities in northern Missouri’s Brunswick have set up barricades to keep boaters away, after rising floodwaters caused the heavily-traveled Norfolk Southern railroad bridge over the Grand River to collapse.

The incident happened Tuesday evening. Brunswick emergency management director Brent Dickerson spoke to our Moberly affiliate KWIX (AM 1230).

“Just before dark, the railroad bridge west of Brunswick, the Norfolk Southern rail line, their main line, the bridge has washed out,” Dickerson says.

The National Weather Service (NWS) Missouri Basin River forecast center tweeted Wednesday that backwater from debris caused the Brunswick gauge to rise. The logjam collapsed the train tracks. The NWS Missouri Basin River forecast center also says there’s been a significant drop in backwater at the upstream gauge.

While there were no injuries, Brunswick marine access has been closed for safety reasons. Norfolk Southern crews are working with Chariton County officials to to keep boaters away. Dickerson tells KWIX the barricades are there to protect people.

“So let the railroad have their barrier to work with, whatever they need to do,” says Dickerson. “And for safety reasons is the main thing, because we don’t know where the bridge went. We do know it went down, most of the middle sections did go down to the south. We don’t know if it’s there sticking up or whatever.”

The location is just west of Brunswick, which is between Carrollton and Moberly.

Virginia-based Norfolk Southern operates in 22 states, including Missouri. Their website says they are “a major transporter of industrial products” like chemicals and agriculture.

Missourinet has left a phone message at Norfolk Southern headquarters seeking additional information. We’ll update this story, when we get a response.

Busy Rocheport I-70 bridge will be replaced, Gov. Parson and Sen. Blunt to announce details on site today

October 2, 2019 By Ashley Byrd

A creatively engineered funding plan of federal, state, local and borrowing has assured that a critical bridge in Missouri will be replaced, instead of repaired. This summer, the Missouri Department of Transportation got $81 million of a federal infrastructure (INFRA) grant, plus the promise of state funding to borrow what it needs to keep traffic flowing over the Missouri River on I-70.

The money will also be used to build climbing lanes on I-70 at what’s known as Mineola Hill in Montgomery County, in the Loutre River valley. “Mineola Hill impacts the national freight network every day,” says MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna.

“The combination of the two created a very strong application and the USDOT recognized that. But that did not provide all of the source of funding for the bridge,” he adds. “We had about a $106 million gap to close. We’ve been working very closely with the highway commission to fill that gap. We’re going to do that through cost-share and the infrastructure bank and we’re really pleased with the way that’s all coming together.”

The Legislature approved $351.0 million for replacement and repair of bridges, including $50 million one-time General Revenue and $301.0 million from bonding, which was contingent upon the award of the federal INFRA Grant.

MoDOT map shows where traffic flows within 48 hours of crossing the I-70 bridge near Rocheport. About 12 million vehicles cross the bridge each year.

Flash flood watch in effect for parts of northern Missouri; severe storms also possible (AUDIO)

October 1, 2019 By Brian Hauswirth

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Pleasant Hill has issued a flash flood watch for parts of north-central and northwest Missouri, through Wednesday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Pleasant Hill says isolated tornadoes and 60-mile per hour winds are possible today across far northwest Missouri (October 1, 2019 map courtesy of NWS Twitter page)

NWS meteorologist Chris Bowman says communities in the watch area have already been inundated with rainfall.

“Some of the cities would be St. Joseph, Maryville, Bethany and up to Atchison County, Missouri,” Bowman says.

The NWS says towns like Tarkio and Fairfax could receive three to four inches of additional rainfall, by Thursday. Northern Missouri communities like Bethany, Princeton and Unionville received four to six inches of rain this weekend.

The state Department of Transportation’s (MoDOT) traveler map shows 58 roads are currently closed due to flooding, primarily in northwest Missouri.

Mr. Bowman tells Missourinet this weather pattern is not typical for October.

“We’ve got a lot of moisture streaming northward. You can just walk outside and right away feel that it’s humid,” says Bowman.

The NWS in Pleasant Hill also says severe storms are possible Tuesday afternoon and evening in far northwest Missouri, with 60 mile per-hour wind gusts possible and an isolated tornado risk. Hail up to one inch is also possible.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with National Weather Service (NWS) Pleasant Hill meteorologist Chris Bowman, which was recorded on October 1, 2019: