Will work in the st.louis district.

This PDF comes from MoDOTs website, explains how the project selection will go and who will be invited (includes the invite list)
http://www.modot.org/regionalprioritiza ... rocess.pdf

I think the STL region should vote to defund MoDot.

Where do you get the 34.5% number? There is nothing in the bill that sets aside any money for St. Louis except for a 5% of the County Aid Transportation Fund.

pat wrote:Where do you get the 34.5% number? There is nothing in the bill that sets aside any money for St. Louis except for a 5% of the County Aid Transportation Fund.

think there is a lot of ignorance out there on how modot funds are split, each of the 6 districts in the state split the money based on various formulas and funding categories

90% of the funds will be split using that number and that money can be used for any mode

5% will go to cities for their road fund
5% to counties for their road Fund
The city of st.louis will get to double dip since it's gets the county portion too.

Those 5 % in each category will be split by population, lane miles Bridget deck ect

I'm not giving MODOT anything. Metro is a different story, though. I would rather fund a N-S line than anything MODOT proposes.

Again, read that link. The sales tax money is for all modes, metro included

I would rather it all go to Metro and none to MODOT.

Gateway City wrote:I would rather it all go to Metro and none to MODOT.

St.Charles would rather have the opposite so that's why this process will probably shake out somewhere in the middle

Right. The bill is to fund all types of transportation. Whether MoDOT follows through with using it for all modes remains to be seen.

There's nothing that guarantees this money will be used for anything other than highways. And how often does MoDOT fund non-road projects? Yes, they have their formulas and project rankings, but those won't out sway the hundreds of lobbyists or the civil engineers at MoDOT. Just because St. Louis gets 34.5% of the pot doesn't mean we get anything we actually need. This could just turn into more of MoDOT's unnecessary highway projects (see the Page extension, South County connector, adding lanes to I-270 at 44, adding a lane to the Poplar St bridge, etc.)

MODOT is a joke. MetroLink is the one we need to see moving dirt.

Pat the only reason MoDOT is attached to this is that someone has to administer these funds, modot isn't selecting the projects, that list of 69 people at the bottom of that link will be. GRG, metro, ports, aviation and modot will submit projects and they will be prioritized by easy west gateway process

So the end product will be a list of projects that you will know before going to the poll in November. It's not "vote for this and we will spend it however" it's "these are the exact projects that will be done if it passed"

One of those projects needs to be the N-S line if it wants my vote.

Would any of the projects be continuant on Federal funding?

Let's say N-S becomes the #1 priority so long as it gets 50% Federal match. Then what? What if Fed funds never show up?

I disagree. MoDOT controls these funds and in turn selects the projects. The document you posted earlier is just the process to determine the priority list for the region per EWG. They submit those projects to MoDOT who ultimately decides whether to spend the money on them or not.

If you read the law, it says that the remaining 90% raised by the tax is to be spent at the "sole discretion of the highway and transportation commission" (MoDOT). Yes, they take recommendations from the areas they serve, but there is nothing that says MoDOT is required to use the funds as prioritized by EWG.

I hope MoDOT listens to the EWG and chooses the projects that are most vital (whether it's transit, or otherwise) for our region. But there isn't anything in the law forcing MoDOT to do so.

I know you're familiar with how MoDOT appropriates funds for the region. But just looking at MoDOT's history, they don't give me a lot of reason to believe they'll use the funds for anything other than roads and bridges.

Pat, state law says modot can only spend it's funds on road and bridges because their funding is tied to gas tax and car registration, they are very limited in what their existing funds can be spent on

I have no doubt that what the region selects for st.louis is what will ultimately be on that final List, modot knows this has to be a across the mode list to pass. Transit community has to be happy, bike/ped, st.charles (mostly highways ) so this will be a very robust list of projects.

Knowitall wrote:I have no doubt that what the region selects for st.louis is what will ultimately be on that final List, modot knows this has to be a across the mode list to pass. Transit community has to be happy, bike/ped, st.charles (mostly highways ) so this will be a very robust list of projects.

And that's the problem. It's Santa Claus coming to town. Give everyone something to get it passed instead of what's right, what's the best ROI, what kind of transportation system do we want for generations to come.

roger wyoming II wrote:^^ what's funny is that rural opponents will hold out the transit projects in Saint Louis and Kansas City as reasons to vote against.

You mean rural Missouri? Those parts will pick their own projects based on their allocation

Pat, state law says modot can only spend it's funds on road and bridges because their funding is tied to gas tax and car registration, they are very limited in what their existing funds can be spent on

I have no doubt that what the region selects for st.louis is what will ultimately be on that final List, modot knows this has to be a across the mode list to pass. Transit community has to be happy, bike/ped, st.charles (mostly highways ) so this will be a very robust list of projects.

I know their hands are somewhat tied with the gas tax. I hear what you're saying. I hope the final list for the November vote really takes what STL needs into account. I just know MoDOT has a lot of civil/transportation engineers, and there is a strong lobby of contractors that support road type construction. It's just hard to picture a lot of urban oriented transit or bike type projects with no guarantee in the law and especially considering Metro apparently isn't submitting anything. It's good that you're optimistic. Just color me skeptical is all.

Anyways...

Are these workshops for the public or is it meant only for the people included on the list on that original document?

quincunx wrote:

Knowitall wrote:I have no doubt that what the region selects for st.louis is what will ultimately be on that final List, modot knows this has to be a across the mode list to pass. Transit community has to be happy, bike/ped, st.charles (mostly highways ) so this will be a very robust list of projects.

And that's the problem. It's Santa Claus coming to town. Give everyone something to get it passed instead of what's right, what's the best ROI, what kind of transportation system do we want for generations to come.

I don't see it as a problem, I see it as a good problem to have if anything. Give and take is the only way these things get done. Hey if I had my way I would push for a n/s metro link but st.charles doesn't care about that.

And there is nobody proposing anything else, we have to play the cards that are dealt and this is what we have now

And thus a lesson in being on the offense. You get to set the table. A big advantage.

We should be dealing the cards not fighting for a seat at the table.