urbanSTL

^article says Indy trail was $63 million for 8 miles in 2008


The article says they expect construction to begin within 2 years.

$50m from Feds? EWG gets about $75m a year to distribute total. Is this like a 15 year plan to build this?

Goat, thanks for summarizing for the rest of us. Couple thoughts to the points

DblnSouthcity sums it up pretty well. Outside of some major grants it would take years to get $50 million in Feds funding. The best outside shot is hoping that TIGER grants stay alive and even then past grants for St. Louis including what $20 million for the Arch Lid and $10 million for Boyle.

For the thread, Is this a poor man version of the central corridor streetcar line? Can't help to think how its routing would essentially accomplished what was proposed for streetcar.

^ I was thinking about the streetcar as well... I believe they had planned for extensive landscaping and greenway treatment as a possibility snd ran costs up to the $300M+ tab.

Anyway, I strongly feel that corridor needs a lift -- the Downtown West/Midtown area needs much more activity. Ideally we could get streetcar + cultural trail, but perhaps just the trail alone would be an effective, and less costly, way to stimulate redevelopment. At the same time Metro could make more modest, BRT-like enhancements to the bus service.

Trump’s Surprising Transportation Priorities
http://fortune.com/2016/11/12/trump-tra ... riorities/

I think there is a pretty good chance that ousted Florida Rep. Mica could end up as Trump's Transportation Secretary. He was one of the few congresscritters that cared about transportation and infrastructure.

IIRC he doesn't care for Amtrak at all.

^ Have to agree, I think headline would be better stated as Missouri struggles to find the political will to for road and bridge repairs.

Not a partisan issue. Same thing going on California after Gov Brown called a special transportation session this year to deal with transportation funding issues. Believe the special session expires today and he didn't get anywhere either and he had same party majority statehouse. Of course some big differences on regional basis, BART and Santa Clara County in Bay Area got some local funding measures passed to the tune of +$6 Billion in additional funding that will fund some much needed BART repairs & expansion as well as LA residents approving a huge long term transit investment plan.

OPINION: Sidewalks Are A Waste When Roads Need To Be Built, State Rep. Miller Says
by Missouri District 124 State Representative Rocky Miller

I am sick of the Government wasting our money on sidewalks and other projects that are not building roads....
...We need to stop accepting this “free” money from the Federal Government and demand our money be spent on actual roads and bridges. Sidewalks and bike paths are a luxury we cannot afford now. Until our local, state and federal representatives stand up and say no more, I’m afraid that this infrastructure deal will give us more debt and few projects, just like the last one....


Read more
http://www.lakeexpo.com/news/lake_news/ ... ff69f.html

I never thought I would see someone opposed to sidewalks lol

^ i mean he isnt wrong about his area (which is what this piece applies to) he isnt talking about urban areas

Slate - Cities are cutting transit because they think Uber will fill the gap. Bad idea!

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/ ... _fill.html

MoDOT has sure pissed off a lot of people today.

Once again our hierarchical road network failed. Spreading everyone and everything apart renders more of us vulnerable. Imagine if everyone had a few fewer miles to drive home last night? Imagine if more didn't need a highway to get home? Imagine if more could get home via a mode other than driving?

Ebsy wrote:MoDOT has sure pissed off a lot of people today.

how so? i missed it.

How is ice MODOT's fault?

MarkHaversham wrote:How is ice MODOT's fault?

They levied the taxes. They built the roads. They maintain the roads. They encourage the development. They failed to clean the exorbitant mileage in a way that would keep the average idiot from ending up in a ditch. Ergo . . .

It's a complex web, but the connections are there. No, they didn't cause the "storm," assuming you believe it qualifies for such an elevated description, but they did a lot to build a network that's vulnerable to precisely this kind of trouble. (Which trouble happens about every darn year, I might add. So it's not exactly unknown.) You can't say the guy who sold you the land in the floodplain caused the flood. But if he neglected to mention the big fat river just out of sight across the treeline. Sure, you maybe should have done some investigating yourself, but most of us aren't qualified to personally asses all risks. Which is why we pay agencies like MODoT to do that kind of stuff. Which . . .

And there you have it.

Firstly, that seems like a lot to lay squarely on the shoulders of MODOT, who are just doing their job as dictated by the voters and their government. Secondly, I doubt "a lot of people today" could follow your argument.

Oh, it's absolutely more complicated than just MODoT. There's a whole host of lobbyists. (I've rigged lights for them and seen their evidence lying around. They hold a convention in Columbia every year. Interesting show, actually. Large toys.) There's legislators that voted for it. And we voted for them. Heck, even the banks that write the notes and the federal agencies that guarantee them are, in some sense, also responsible. But I'm guessing that if "a lot of people today" can't follow the chain to MODoT they'll not get all the way back to the money men. All that said, I do believe it is MODoT's job to plan for precisely this sort of event. All concerned I think they did fine. (We really do usually look out the window and say "Oh, there's a river over there. Maybe we should buy flood insurance and make sure we have a johnboat handy.") But . . . not everyone will see it that way. Especially not if they bent their pretty fender because they were driving too carelessly on one of MODoT's many many roads. I won't say they're solely responsible. But I think it's reasonable to say this is, in fact, a part of their rather complicated job.

weather reports said above freezing temp and rain.....putting salt down didnt make sense in that predicted condition as the rain would have just washed away the salt. by the time the predicted condition changed the rush hour driving started, it was too late to do anything.

Keep in mind that 33% of the roads (12,000miles ) modot maintains arent modot roads in any other state...they're county roads
and anything new built since the 1970s is decided, voted on and approved by the metropolitan planning org, East West Gateway. Who's board of directors is City Mayor, county executives, county commissioners and other elected officials in the metro STL region
current board
http://www.ewgateway.org/aboutus/BOD/bod.htm

Life isn't fair. And weather can change fast. And you (and maybe MODoT) were looking at different weather reports than I recall. Seemed like it was expected to me. (I was getting reports of apocalypse from friends in CoMO rather before the system got here, as I recall. In more or less typical fashion.) But . . . hindsight is twenty twenty. And fair or not, they're in the big chair. Just saying there is a logical chain you can follow.