Officials in both mid-Missouri and northeast Missouri have been trying for more than two decades to add passing lanes on the busy 55-mile stretch of Highway 54 between Mexico and Louisiana, Missouri.
They’ve been unsuccessful in obtaining a $25-million federal RAISE grant to complete the project, which they say is needed for numerous safety reasons. Audrain County Presiding Commissioner Alan Winders, who’s also the Highway 54 Coalition chair, recently testified on Capitol Hill before the U.S. House Transportation Committee, which is chaired by U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Tarkio). That stretch of highway is located on Congressman Graves’ sprawling 39-county northern Missouri district. Commissioner Winders testifies that the grant criteria has been a moving target.
“The first time we applied we were highly recommended and then we went to recommended, and now I believe the latest iteration was acceptable. And this was with effectively the same application. What has changed are the raters and rating criteria,” Mr. Winders testifies.
Chairman Graves says applying for grant programs is a moving target for rural communities, “with ever-changing requirements.”
Commissioner Winders testifies that a driver is almost twice as likely to die on a rural road than an urban road, and that the Highway 54 passing lanes are needed.
“That particular road shares traffic with everything from horse and buggy, Amish traffic at three or four miles an hour to 60-miles an hour heavy truck traffic. 20-mile an hour combines that are 16 or thereabouts wide and every vehicle in between. Passing lanes would be a great safety improvement for that part of the … and a very much-needed safety improvement,” Winders testifies.
Winders says while counties hold a 44 percent ownership share of the nation’s roads and a 38 percent ownership share of the nation’s bridges, they receive no direct, guaranteed federal funding to support those assets. Click here to read Commissioner Winders’ nine-page written statement.
