Loudon seeks residents' help to get highway funding

Friday, December 5, 2008 3:13 AM CST

Because the U.S. Congress may pass an infrastructure stimulus package early next year to help address infrastructure needs, Missouri Sen. John Loudon, R-Chesterfield, is asking area residents to write letters to the Missouri Department of Transportation.

Those letters, he hopes, will encourage MoDOT to take advantage of such funding to reconstruct and improve the two-lane "bottleneck" section of Highway 141 between Interstate 64 (Highway 40) and Olive Boulevard and support its extension farther north to Page Avenue.

He called a Hwy. 141 project one of the region's highest infrastructure and economic development priorities.

St. Louis County estimates this project could produce $20 billion of economic activity during 20 years and would relieve traffic on Interstate 270 and parts of I-64 and make Page more accessible, Loudon said.

He said that would make it easier for traffic and commerce to move on both sides of the Missouri River in St. Louis and St. Charles counties.

Loudon is asking residents to request that MODOT director Pete Rahn and his chief engineer for the state, Kevin Keith, make Hwy. 141 a top priority for the use of these funds.

If this chance is missed, Loudon said, it may be a long time before there is another. He said voters are unlikely to be willing in the current economy to pass a tax increase for transportation in the near future.

Letters asking for Hwy. 141 to be put on a final list of projects to receive funding from a congressional infrastructure stimulus package can be sent to Rahn or Keith at the Missouri Department of Transportation, P.O. Box 270, Jefferson City, MO 65102 or e-mailed to pete.rahn@modot.mo.gov or kevin.keith@modot.mo.gov.