Despite a trend fewer bids are being submitted for rural transportation projects, the Missouri Department of Transportation awarded more than $11 million in contracts for Central Missouri road projects.
The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission approved the funding and contracts during its Oct. 5 meeting. Work on all of the projects will begin next year.
Nearly $2.5 million of the funds will be used for diamond grinding and pavement repairs along more than 10 miles of eastbound Interstate 70 in Callaway County. Crews from contractor Emery Sapp and Sons will make the repairs from the Route A/Z interchange to the Montgomery County line.
The commission also approved $4.4 million to contract Magruder Paving to resurface parts of routes CC and AD in Callaway County, as well as make pavement improvements on routes C, AA, OO, TT and AE.
The commission awarded contracts to perform seal coat overlays on routes U, V and DD in Phelps County; routes 134, D, H, Y and AA in Miller and Morgan counties; Route 5 in Laclede County; and routes Y, V and Outer Road 54 in Camden County.
Additional projects were approved for Crawford and Laclede counties.
At the commission's Oct. 5 meeting, state design engineer Travis Koestner said the department received 84 bids on the 26 projects it opened Sept. 16.
His recommendation, which the commission approved, was to award all projects to the lowest responsive bidder, except four that had excessive bids.
"Looking over the bids this month, it's really exciting to see the competition entered back into the arena," Commissioner Dustin Boatwright said. "So hopefully that continues, and we see some of these inflationary pressures start coming back down."
During the commission's September meeting, MoDOT Director Patrick McKenna said the department was seeing "troubling trends" relating to a lack of bids on rural road projects. The department was averaging two bids per call, as opposed to the usual four to five.
"It's a regional issue that we're experiencing, but it's something that we really have to keep an eye on," McKenna said.
Koestner said the department received a few more bidders on several projects this month, which is a good sign.
But inflationary cost increases are still hitting the department.
MoDOT is about 38.7 percent over-budget for the current fiscal year, Koestner said, which is equal to about $141 million on $370 million worth of work since July 1.
"We're still seeing that pressure, but hopefully as the year goes on we'll kind of level out," he said.
And road projects are still going out.
At the commission's September meeting, McKenna said the agency is anticipating approving bids for nearly 220 projects between September and the end of the year, worth approximately $575 million.
"That's a sweet sound to everybody, in terms of getting that work out that the public has been desperately seeking for decades," he said.
McKenna said the state's gas tax increase, which is still being incrementally implemented, and federal investments through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have equipped MoDOT with the financial resources to do road and bridge work that has been put off for years.
MoDOT's five-year Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), which the commission approved in July, totals $2.5 billion in the first year alone, $567 million of which is dedicated to operations and maintenance work and $1.6 billion is slated for highway and bridge work.
The STIP includes 23 projects in Cole County and 20 projects in Callaway County.
A $4.4 million expansion of U.S. 54/63 north of Jefferson City is among the projects to be awarded in fiscal year 2024. The expansion would add lanes to the section of highway that exits to Columbia.
"If you drive through there during the morning and evening basically rush hours, you know that area gets pretty congested so we're going to be able to address that and basically improve the way it flows through that area," said Randy Aulbur, assistant central district engineer.
Expanding U.S. 63 from U.S. 50 toward Rolla is also on the list of upcoming projects, as is expanding U.S. 54 in Camdenton.
The district is planning major developments in Columbia, including tackling the Interstate 70 and U.S. 63 interchange for about $140 million and the U.S. 63 and Grindstone Parkway interchange for $14 million.
MoDOT's Central District includes 18 counties. More than 91 percent of major routes in the district are considered to be in good condition, as are more than 77 percent of minor routes and 70 percent of low volume roads. Approximately 94 of the district's 1,297 bridges are in poor condition.