Small turnout for MoDOT public hearing

The number of people who wandered into the public hearing for the Missouri Department of Transportation’s ambitious truck-only lane project was small Thursday night.
Bob Brendel, spokesperson for MoDOT, said that’s normal.
“A few have come,” he said. “About 35 in Columbia came when we had it on Wednesday night.”
Attendance is always scant during such hearings, where a state transportation agency puts all of its graphics, its videos,  its demonstration boards out for full viewing. Such hearings are meant to give the public a thorough view of the project under discussion.
In this case, it’s an unfunded and very ambitious proposal to construct truck-only lanes between Independence and Lake St. Louis.
Tucked into the corner of the upstairs hall of the American Legion Post 499 in Blue Springs was the project in all its glory. A full-scale rendering of what looks like something one would see in New York City or Chicago.
It’s also a rendering that Steve Wells, the project’s engineer for HNTB, keeps a close eye on.
“It’s impressive,” he said. “It’s more effective than the original concept of only three additional lanes.”
The new concept calls for rebuilding and widening Interstate 70 with at least two lanes in each direction for cars and local trucks, and two in each direction for long-haul trucks. There would also be new interchanges at most locations, separate car and truck interchanges at a few locations, and new bridges at most locations.
It creates a travel environment where trucks use mostly the interior lanes, keeping to themselves, away from smaller cars and trucks.
Wells estimates that it would take between 100 and 150 additional feet to build the four lanes, but the results, he said, would reduce truck-related accidents.
“People want less to do with trucks,” he said. As a definition, MoDOT describes trucks as any vehicle having three or more axles and weighing 22,000 pounds or more. While the trucks would not be mandated to travel in the new lanes, MoDOT  has said that truckers won’t have to be told.
Involved in approximately 28 percent of I-70 accidents, trucks are responsible for 40 percent of highway fatalities, according to MoDOT figures. MoDOT estimated that as much as 70 percent of the truck traffic on I-70 travels through the corridor without scheduled stops, pick-ups, or deliveries.
“Most of the trucking representatives I’ve spoken to are for  the project,” Brendel said.
“There’s a feeling that trucks don’t want to be near cars and cars don’t want to be near trucks,” Wells said. “I don’t want to be near them. That’s what I think every time I get on I-70.”
Funding the project, however, is another matter. Currently, there is no price tag to the project, though Brendel said that hasn’t stopped MoDOT from planning for the future.
“When the money comes available, we want to be ready to go as quickly as possible,” Brendel said. “As it is now, we could start quickly.”
Don Chaffee, who lives in Kansas City and is a long-distance hauler, was one of the few who came to see the proposal. He said the idea is a good one and one he supports.
“I came just to see the project up close, something that I could see,” he said. “I hope it works out.”
For more information visit www.improvei70.org.