Contact: Rob Ostrander 202.224.7627 Shana Stribling 202.224.0309
Saturday, July 30, 2005

JOPLIN, MO – U.S. Senator Kit Bond today hosted a Transportation Summit in Joplin as part of a statewide swing on the passage of the federal highway bill and Missouri transportation priorities. Senator Bond was joined by the Missouri Department of Transportation, as well as business, law enforcement, government and transportation leaders from across the region.

“The new transportation bill is about all these things: improving road conditions so that drivers and their passengers are safer, reducing congestion so that people can spend less time commuting to work and more time with family or doing what they want to do, improving roads to attract new businesses, and creating new construction jobs,” said Bond, one of the key authors of the federal highway bill. “It has been a long time coming, but all the hard work and time has been worth the wait. Missouri has emerged from this process in a better position than ever.”

Bond hailed the long-awaited passage of the $286.5 billion federal highway bill and stressed that the new bill will provide almost $1.3 billion in additional highway funding for Missouri over the life of the five-year bill. Bond was able to earmark $467.5 million for transportation projects statewide.

For years, Bond has fought to increase the return on the dollar that Missourians pay in federal transportation taxes. In the agreement today, Bond successfully fought to increase Missouri’s share to 98 cents on the dollar. In 1987, when Bond joined the Senate, Missourians received 76 cents on the dollar.

The new formula ensures that Missouri will receive more than $200 million in new highway dollars each year. Under the bill, Missouri will receive $862 million through the formula programs each year, up from $661 million in the last transportation bill.

On top of the extra funding provided by the new formula, Bond also secured over $265 million in additional new funds for specific Missouri highway projects, bringing the total new highway funding level for Missouri to almost $1.3 billion over five years.

In addition to the highway and bridge funds, Bond secured new dollars for the following projects: $50 million for statewide transit projects; $25 million for a non-motorized pilot project in Columbia; $27.5 million for research; and authorization for two new Metrolink Extensions.

Specifically for southwest Missouri Bond secured federal funds for the following projects:

-$20 million for Northbound Rt. 13, Polk and Greene,

-$10 million to widen Rt. 66, Jasper County,

-$20 million to widen Rt. 65 to 4 lanes, Rt. EE to I-44, Greene County,

-$10 million to rebuild 60/65 Interchange, Greene County

Recent studies show nearly 43,000 Americans lose their lives each year on America’s highways and that every $1 billion in new federal investment in highways will create 47,500 jobs.