Get "To the Point" with MoDOT Director Kevin Keith

Want to hear about MoDOT’s plans straight from the director? No problem. Just subscribe and listen as MoDOT Director Kevin Keith gets “To the Point” with Community Relations Coordinator Jorma Duran in a brief, weekly interview on what’s happening at your department of transportation.

“To the Point” is a collection of Q&A interviews that cover the hot topics affecting MoDOT, from the new five-year direction to maintenance, construction projects and financing. The podcasts are available at www.modot.org/modotpodcast or on iTunes. An extensive archive of all the previous recordings is also available so you can pick and chose the subjects that interest you most. To get started, look for the “MoDOT Podcast” button in the right hand navigation of the MoDOT homepage at www.modot.org or click on the podcast icon at the top of the page.

Listening to these podcasts is perhaps the easiest way to keep up with MoDOT events. I mean, all you have to do is click the play button. You can listen to the podcasts at home, at work, in your car or online. Whatever time works best for you.

MoDOT wants you to be a part of Missouri’s transportation solutions. There’s no easier way to do that than to sit back and get the scoop straight from the source.

It's Personal

When it comes to transportation, it's personal. Whether we realize it or not, transportation affects the lives of each of us. It's much more than driving or using public transit. It's about your child's soccer shoes ordered online with the expectation of delivery, or the groceries you need to grab on the way home. It's the connections that keep businesses up and running. Transportation not only moves us, it makes the movement of goods and services possible.

It's our connection to work, safety and economic growth.

MoDOT Director Kevin Keith presented the personal side of transportation today at the 2011 Missouri Conference on Transportation. Missouri organizations like the Farm Bureau, State Highway Patrol, Transportation Alliance and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry gathered to discuss meeting the demands of a diverse population, ensuring economic growth and global competitiveness.

Keith pointed out that it really comes down to two choices. Door number one opens to the choice of doing nothing - Missourians lose the transportation gains we've made, such as smooth roads and fewer fatalities than seen in the last 50 years. We watch roads and bridges get worse, and find ourselves with the inability to attract and retain vital businesses.

Or, there's door number two. That door opens to finding a way to invest in infrastructure -- building better roads, and providing literal and figurative bridges to improve our economy.

It's a challenge in today's political and economical environment, but a plan of action is needed.

Which door will you choose?

MoDOT Through the Looking Glass

MoDOT has a bunch of good-lookin’ employees. Who wouldn’t want to catch a peek of ‘em in the truck mirrors?

That’s what I thought after learning that MoDOT’s Northeast District added bright orange stickers to the back of bright yellow dump trucks. The message on the stickers is familiar to those who drive around 18-wheel trucks: If you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you.

It turns out that the district’s safety and health committee recommended the message. Concern about incidents when dump truck drivers backed into vehicles behind them – vehicles the dump truck driver could not see – prompted the team’s action. Since commercial trucks have the same blind spot, the team thought, we could try using one of their safety tactics.

It will be a few months – April 2010, to be exact – before the pilot program wraps up, but the district already notes a decrease in the number of backing incidents. It’s possible the stickers will spread statewide.

Big thanks to the big trucks for inspiring an effective, inexpensive safety tool.

And keep those glances in the mirror quick. MoDOT folks will try to temper our beauty so we’re not too distracting!

Show Us Your Seat Belt Dance

More than 250 seat belt videos have been posted online in the first round of the Get Your Buckle On video competition which ended Aug. 31.

Many of the videos were filmed in the Highway Gardens Exhibit Hall at this year’s Missouri’s State Fair. Teens, young children and adults all had a blast dancing to the original song, “Get Your Buckle On.”

The winner of the first-round contest will be announced by Oct. 1 as we kick off Get Your Buckle On – Round 2.

Visit www.getyourbuckleon.com/ to check out the videos.

Tomorrow's Engineers

Twenty-nine students participated in the 2009 TRAC Summer Conference this summer. TRAC stands for Transportation and Civil Engineering Program, and offers hand-on experience to high school students who may become our future engineers.

One of the activities involved working at a traffic signal to take a traffic count. Students also received an overview of MoDOT and its divisions, and had a presentation regarding the No Zone and how they can stay safe around large trucks. (See the blog post from Aug. 21, "Disappearing Dump Trucks", for an eye-opening video of what the students learned)

Elizabeth Reed, with MoDOT's Equal Employement and Opportunity division, sees TRAC as a valuable opportunity to reach out to students.

"They were given an opportunity to learn engineering concepts and apply them to real-world situations," said Reed. "Hopefully, it will encourage them to become tomorrow's engineers."

$50 Million Cost Savings Means More Highway Projects Sooner

JEFFERSON CITY – By pinching pennies, estimating construction work to the dime and encouraging innovation, the Missouri Department of Transportation has saved nearly $50 million that will be used to tackle 36 new highway projects this year.


Located throughout the state, the projects include resurfacing, bridge approach repairs, and new signals, lights and signs. Nineteen of the projects were scheduled to be built in the next two years, but now will begin this year. Another 17 projects that will now begin this year were not yet listed on MoDOT’s five-year construction program, which runs through 2012. The new project list can be found at http://www.modot.org/.


“Our all-out efforts to cut costs are reaping big rewards,” said MoDOT Director Pete Rahn. “We promised Missourians we would work hard to get the most value out of every dollar we spend. Some of these projects weren’t even listed in our five-year construction program, but now we’re able to get started on them in the next few months. That shows we’re serious about delivering results and building trust.”


Many states have delayed or cancelled projects because of rising construction, material and fuel costs and declining state and federal revenue. MoDOT, on the other hand, has delivered $5.5 billion in road improvements within less than one-tenth of one percent of the budgeted amount since 2003.


The department has also aggressively managed costs by:
· designing projects to fit specific needs, without additional frills;
· rebidding projects if they come in too high;
· closing roads during construction if it saves money and time; and
· asking contractors to use alternate materials, propose innovative design and construction methods and work off-hours.



Delivering projects on time and within budget is no longer viewed as a challenge, but an expectation, Rahn said.


“Saving money, while delivering quality work, is simply MoDOT’s way of doing business,” Rahn said. “We have to show we’re accountable with the funding we’ve been given, before we can ask Missourians to dedicate more revenue toward transportation.”


He said trimming expenses is more critical now than ever as the state faces a significant drop in funding for transportation in 2010. That’s when the bonding proceeds made possible by Amendment 3 end. In addition, the amount of federal funds Missouri can expect to receive for transportation projects is expected to drop 40 percent. Compounding the problem is rising fuel and material costs.


“Our construction program will drop from $1.23 billion this year to $569 million in 2010,” Rahn said. “If something isn’t done to provide more funding, we face returning to the days when people were complaining about how bad our roads were.”

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