Category: Transportation

Winter travel? There’s an app for that, MoDOT says

Posted by mpoletti – January 10, 2012

Although we’ve had a mild winter to date, the other shoe can drop at any time. The Missouri Department of Transportation is hoping to provide a handy way to navigate winter weather on the state’s roads: It has launched its online Traveler Information Map as a smartphone app.

The free app, available for the iPhone and Android phones (version 2.2 or later), provides a miniaturized version of the interactive road map, offering a state overview of construction-, incident- and weather-related road conditions, as well as zoomed-in information on a given location. Weather information and traffic cameras are also accessible.

As with the Traveler Information App on MoDOT’s full website, all of it is updated continuously during snow and ice events. (I know that’s when I find myself hitting “refresh” constantly.)

MoDOT cautions that the app should be only one part of a safe travel plan, with weather reports and law enforcement alerts factored in, as well. Also, don’t use the app while driving, the agency says; that’s as bad as texting and driving.

MoDOT seeking input on new traffic signal in Hannibal

Posted by mpoletti – August 15, 2011

backplate

The reflective backplate around each traffic signal at the intersection of U.S. 61 and Market Street/Paris Gravel Road in Hannibal.

The city of Hannibal is hard at work on improvements to both sides of the busy intersection of U.S. 61 and Market Street/Paris Gravel Road — namely, a total rebuilding of Paris Gravel Road and stormwater improvements along Market Street. Now MoDOT has added an improvement of their own to the mix, and the agency is seeking driver input on the change.

Drivers who cross that intersection regularly might have noticed a yellow reflective backplate around each stoplight. The backplates at this intersection are the first in Missouri, MoDOT Traffic Engineer Brian Untiedt said. They’re designed to get a driver’s attention and help lead to accident reduction at an intersection that already has a photo-enforced stoplight.

MoDOT’s question: Are they a good idea?

Drivers can vote on that question throughout this month on the Northeast District’s website. For those who don’t frequently use the intersection in question, the agency has provided a photo of the backplates, which replaced older backplates that were due for an upgrade anyway.

I use U.S. 61 frequently in the course of assignments in Hannibal and travels to the St. Louis area. The backplates certainly stand out more at night — and any additional safety measures at this busy intersection are worth considering.

MoDOT’s “Bolder Five-Year Direction”: What’s closing, when and where

Posted by mpoletti – May 13, 2011

The Missouri Department of Transportation is unveiling the details of its “Bolder Five-Year Direction” in the coming days at community briefings across the state. Meetings were held yesterday in Monticello and Kahoka; another was scheduled early this morning in Edina, and others are scheduled next week in Monroe City, Bowling Green and Shelbina. Click here for the details on where those briefings will be held (opens in Microsoft Excel).

The details, in short: MoDOT will cut 1,200 jobs (including the 340 it has already cut in the past year), drop more than 740 pieces of equipment and close 135 facilities, including three district offices and 111 maintenance sheds. These moves are expected to save $500 million. The agency has said its current $1.2 billion program scope will contract to $600 million in the face of uncertain state and federal funding; the term “funding cliff” has long been used.

MoDOT’s very helpful Bolder Five-Year Direction page includes current and proposed maps of the agency’s districts and facilities. For comparison’s sake, I drew up a map overlaying the new district boundaries over the current boundaries and noting the facilities closing in the Northeast District. The current boundaries are in black/gray, the new ones in red. (Click to enlarge.)

my-modot-map4As you can see, District 3 — the Northeast District — will keep its Hannibal headquarters but will nearly double in size as it absorbs most of District 2, whose Macon district office will close. The Northeast District will lose two counties to the St. Louis District and one to the Central District, headquartered in Jefferson City.

The new district will lose a total of 15 maintenance sheds, including 10 within the current district’s boundaries. Within the nine Missouri counties The Herald-Whig typically covers, the following maintenance sheds will close (denoted on the map by a black X and listed down the side in my chicken scratch):

• Monroe City (Marion)

• Monticello (Lewis)

• LaBelle (Lewis)

• Luray (Clark)

• Novelty (Knox)

• Frankford (Pike)

• Louisiana (Pike)

• Eolia (Pike)

• Shelbyville (Shelby)

Other sheds closing in the proposed district include one in Audrain County at the district’s southern edge and a total of five in Macon, Linn and Sullivan counties to the west. This leaves each county in the entire district (except Marion) with one shed.

It’s unclear how the maintenance shed closings will affect jobs in each county, but at yesterday’s Lewis County meeting. District Engineer Paula Gough said it’s “reasonable to assume,” for example, that all Monticello and LaBelle employees will be eligible for transfer to the Canton shed (unless they’d prefer to be transferred to a different county because of where they live or other considerations).

Assuming the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission approves the new five-year plan at its next meeting June 8, all of the facility closings and staffing and equipment cuts will be implemented by Dec. 31, 2012, Gough said Thursday.

Hannibal to host Missouri Highways & Transportation Commission in June

Posted by mpoletti – April 6, 2011

Great news for Hannibal: The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission will hold its June 8 meeting in Hannibal. The commission typically holds six of its monthly meetings on the road each year, visiting locales around the state.

The Hannibal Area Chamber of Commerce and the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Northeast District have been working for several years to bring the MHTC to America’s Hometown, and for good reason — it’s a large and influential meeting. Last year’s commission meeting in Shelbina filled the town’s Hawkins Theater and garnered an extensive welcome effort by local and regional officials. The commission met in Canton in 2008 and in Kirksville in 2007; a Northeast Missouri-area meeting was not held in 2009.

That welcome effort includes a customary reception the night before the meeting, hosted by local officials such as the mayor and city council. With the Hannibal meeting falling on a Wednesday, the reception would be held June 7 — the night of the regularly scheduled City Council meeting. So the City Council readily agreed to move their June 7 meeting up to Monday, June 6, the previous day, to accommodate the multi-day event that is the public welcome to the commission meeting.

It’s somewhat rare for a Hannibal City Council meeting to be moved. However, it’s even rarer for a traveling statewide body like this to pay them a visit and allow them this kind of showcase.