Northeast Missouri is home to more than 150,000 folks who do their jobs, raise their families, and make do with what they have, which is not a lot. Until recently, some 8 of the worst 10 counties in Missouri for broadband service were in Northeast Missouri. Since 2016, we have taken that bull by the horns, forged a regional consensus, and are deploying high-speed internet on a daily basis. The first county in Missouri that serves every one of its residents who want broadband internet is in my Northeast district—Ralls County, which began the process nearly 15 years ago. Can you name the only Rural county in Missouri that gained population from 2010-2020? Ralls County. Why? Because they made a conscious commitment to move into the 21st century. We do not wait around in the Northeast to be told what to do. We roll up our sleeves and do what needs to be done, period.
Conversely, can you name the only region of Missouri with zero interstate access? Northeast Missouri. The reasons for this are many, and none of them are good.
Make no mistake—this is not a criticism of our MoDOT, the men and women who serve us night and day in every imaginable kind of weather to keep our roads and bridges safe. My issue is with the other MoDOT—the folks no one elected who dictate where billions of our tax dollars go every year with zero accountability.
When I first ran for 5th District State Representative in 2018, my opponent and I agreed that bypassing US 61 around Hannibal was a top priority. It has been a top priority not just for us, but our entire region—for more than 10 years. That bypass was supposed to have been built along with the rest of the Avenue of the Saints, which stretches from St. Louis to St. Paul, Minnesota. The Avenue of the Saints was “finished” in 2007 when MoDOT built the road to the Iowa state line. The last time MoDOT had engaged the Hannibal area on the bypass was in 1996. It has taken us fighting tooth and nail since 2019 to get the other MoDOT to recognize the importance of this project to the region and to our state. In 2023 alone, we waited for 8 months for MoDOT to pitch some “alternatives” no one asked for. What happens to the cost of everything when we wait for nearly a year to talk about the next steps? It increases, leaving our region further behind than when the process started. We finally got a number from MoDOT that we can work with and have identified four possible routes that have not substantially changed since 1996—except for the geometric increase in costs. Meanwhile, fully loaded 18 have created their own bypasses. Eighteen-wheelers roll past an elementary school on roads not designed for such traffic, they use old Highway 36, complete with a local legend known as “Dead Man’s Curve,” and many use Route H, a letter blacktop whose most compelling features are curves, a lack of shoulders, and the distinction of being the most closed road in my district as soon as a snowflake falls.
(Note—Even with trucks crafting their own bypasses, Hannibal still sees 4200 trucks a day going through the middle of town, some carrying hazardous materials. Along the way, those hazmat trucks travel in front of Hannibal Senior High and Hannibal Middle Schools—some 2000 students are about 100 yards from those trucks. My worst fear is that a hazmat truck will wreck in front of one of those schools.) I have personally watched loaded semis roll through red lights at the intersection between the two schools. On one occasion, two students came within 10 feet of being run over by a truck blowing through a red light at a minimum of 45 miles per hour. But the other MoDOT does not consider this a priority.
Before the Hannibal bypass battle, the Northeast Region had to create a 4-county Transportation Development District to build 52 miles of 4-lane highway from Hannibal to Macon—reputedly the last 52 miles of 2-lane road from Nova Scotia to the Pacific Ocean—because the other MoDOT did not deem that stretch of road a “priority”—although it had been a regional priority—sound familiar?– for more than a decade. I was at the Highway Commission meeting when former Commissioner Tom Boland of Hannibal told them that if MoDOT would not build the road, we would. He had lined up the construction company and a TDD was ready to go. MoDOT blinked and built it—but we paid for it with our own tax dollars. We retired the debt several years ahead of schedule due to the increase in economic activity that 4 lanes bring.
Kirksville met a similar fate: they paid to 4-lane a 30-mile stretch of US 63 north from Macon—and hired an out-of-state contractor to build it. Macon has not been so fortunate: the first time they asked for a bypass on US 63 around their city was in 1964. Still waiting—60 years later.
For our sins, we are recognized by MoDOT for being leaders in cost-sharing. That is nice, but when you consider that we were not doing this for our health, and that lives literally depended on it, that takes away some of the luster.
Worse, we are being ignored—again—over our complete lack of Interstate highway access.
If you take a quick look at Wentzville, you will notice two major roads intersecting there—I-64 and I-70. Fifty years ago, Wentzville had about 3,000 people. In 2024, it has nearly 15 times that many.
My hometown, Hannibal, should be at the junction of two interstate highways, the continuation of the Avenue of the Saints (US 61) and I-72. We should be in Wentzville. We are not.
Every time I hear our elected officials wax philosophic about Missouri being the Center Of The Universe, the World’s Leading Hub For All Things Supply Chain And Logistics, I laugh. That is true for every other corner of the state but the Northeast. Those of us who receive the Department of Economic Development’s bulletins about new business openings will note that every corner of the state is opening up supply chain centers—except the Northeast. As far as we are concerned, that is an alternate reality. While we are happy for the prosperity of the rest of Missouri, we are not pleased that we are not in the conversation. And we are not. I have talked to site selectors all over the United States and have been told the same thing: if you do not have an “I-“ in front of your highway name, you are doomed. It is called “desktop elimination.” You never know who might have been interested in bringing new economic opportunities to your area because they never bother to contact you—ever.
If you do not believe me, check with your economic developers. Ask them to show you the areas of the state under consideration for major business expansion—developments of 200 acres and up. I have seen the maps. There are more than 100 such sites in Missouri, and the grand total of 1 is on US 36—and that one is 30 miles away from I-35 (and 120 miles away from Hannibal). For my district, that 120 miles away might as well be on the dark side of the moon.
To be fair to MoDOT, I should note that I-72 does go through Hannibal—for less than 2 miles. It dead ends at the US 61 junction. According to the Federal Highway Administration, since 2017, both the Avenue of the Saints and I-72 are “High Priority Corridors.” (So is US 60, by the way, which also travels through an area of Missouri that could use the economic activity that an interstate highway would bring). Evidently, they are high priorities to everyone but the other MoDOT.
It gets worse. When we built US 36 from Hannibal to Macon, we constructed an interstate-quality highway for 8 miles, from the Mississippi River to the US 24 junction. When I first brought this to the attention of the other MoDOT to pursue interstate road designation, I was first told that it wasn’t up to interstate standards (it is). Then I was told that the Feds wouldn’t like it (although the Feds signed off on a 20-mile stretch of similar highway from several miles east of Hannibal to north of Quincy, Illinois–cleverly labeled on the Illinois map as I-172). That designation has led to hundreds of millions in investment in the Quincy area, including distribution centers and major retail expansion as the city has grown toward the interstate. The latest news: Amazon will build a distribution center on this road. That is great for the people of Quincy and the People’s Republic of Illinois, but not for my district.
Lately, the refrain has been that we can get the designation as soon as the Hannibal bypass is built to the west (literally only God knows when that will happen). We have built an industrial park equipped with 100 gig internet capability and have zero tenants because we are not located on an interstate highway—despite the fact that the park is a quarter mile away from an interstate-quality road and has been for nearly 15 years.
Whenever the other MoDOT pulls my chain, I file a bill. One of my latest would enable the General Assembly to veto MoDOT’s spending plan (the “STIP,” Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, which MoDOT trots out like The Ark of The Covenant when they do not want something to happen to overwhelm us heathens, but reserve the right to move projects in and out at their whim with zero accountability whatsoever).
Another would abolish the Highway Commission entirely. When the current operating structure was enacted in 1921, Missouri was struggling to pave roads with gravel to accommodate Model T’s. Between us, the only thing that hasn’t changed about MoDOT since 1921 is that they have zero accountability to anyone for the billions in tax dollars they distribute as they please. Most states do not have highway commissions and that includes a majority of our surrounding states. By any measure, 103 years is a pretty good run. Regardless of how long they have ruled, however, zero accountability is never a good look.
Any conversation about accountability and the other MoDOT has to include a discussion of the fabled “15-Year Plan” that the other MoDOT launched on an unsuspecting public more than 30 years ago. MoDOT then promised that every community of more than 5,000 people would have 4-lane highway access. They promised Pike and Audrain Counties in Northeast that US 54 would be a 4-lane divided highway from the Mississippi River at Louisiana to Mexico. That has been scaled back considerably, despite the fact that the truck traffic has increased dramatically. That includes Dollar General, Amazon, Target, DOT Foods, Wal-Mart, the usual long-haul carriers, and grain trucks going year-round to the Ethanol plant in Laddonia. (I know this for a fact because I drive this road to get to and from Jefferson City dozens of times a year).
More than 30 years later, about half of the tissue of lies that was the 15-Year Plan has actually been completed or started. MoDOT has howled for decades about not “having enough funding,” but that was a self-inflicted sucking chest wound. They lied, got caught, and destroyed our trust. They overpromised and under-delivered on an epic scale never seen before or since in Missouri history. Pleading poverty is not a good look when they were the ones who painted themselves into the “Untrustworthy” corner. (Under the heading of Zero Accountability, History Lesson, can you name anyone who was fired as a result of that colossal blunder? Me neither).
Which brings us to the present. When I filed my latest bills to overhaul MoDOT, the reply was that was a horrible idea, due to the “shifting political winds.” Funny story—the “shifting political winds” have parachuted some $4 billion of General Revenue funds—over and above fuel tax monies–into MoDOT’s coffers over the last 5 years. The largest deposit was $2.8 billion appropriated by the Missouri General Assembly to tear up I-70 and put it back together as a 6-lane interstate all the way across Missouri. Enter the Ark of The Covenant again—The STIP, MoDOT’s official spending plan. According to MoDOT’s own “policies,” I-70 should not be worked on at all, since it was not in the “Funded” Tier. If MoDOT played by its own “Rules,” they could have built every project in Tier 1, Tier 2, and a chunk of Tier 3 of the STIP. They chose not to. The “shifting political winds” are going to result in construction on a road that technically should not be built—if you follow MoDOT’s “guidelines” that they will not follow themselves. Not so funny story—the STIP is not in Missouri’s Constitution, and it is not in State statute. It is an artificial construct designed and used solely by MoDOT, which controls what goes in and what goes out at their whim. Really not so fun fact—not one of the people who have this life-and-death operational control over billions of your tax dollars is elected to the Highway Commission. At a time when even the United States Supreme Court has turned the corner on “deference” to unelected bureaucrats, this Zero-Accountability model needs to go.
What’s next on the “shifting political winds” hit parade? I-44. We in Northeast Missouri do not begrudge the rest of Missouri a thing when it comes to upgrading roads and bridges. I-44 needs a lot of work and we agree. The latest major expenditure going to roads that are hundreds of miles from the Northeast will be on I-44—more than $500 million worth.
What we cannot abide is that Northeast Missouri has been completely left out of the process. We receive less than $100 million for 17 counties—and two of those counties border I-70, so we are subsidizing that road as well. Think about that a minute—17 counties sharing less than 20% of the general revenue funding that will flow into the I-44 corridor alone. And we still have zero interstate access.
And here is what is going to happen when MoDOT tears up I-70, which they are already doing. The 4000 trucks we see a day coming into Hannibal and across US 36 will increase consistently. The GPS coordinates that route those trucks to St. Louis—40,000 a day—will see the red and yellow lines on I-70 that are going to pop up for the next 5-7 years minimum and they will route those trucks across US 36. Here is a fun fact: it is closer from Chicago to Kansas City across US 36 through Hannibal than it is from Chicago to Kansas City through St. Louis—and it is faster, even with the 65 mph speed limit. (Please do not tell MoDOT that—it is a no-brainer that Chicago sees more of the freight that crosses through the Midwest than any other city, and upgrading US 36 to I-72 would move that freight faster and would also take pressure off the traffic on I-70. That would enable them to fulfill twin missions: improved highway safety and increased economic activity. For reasons known only to those folks, who are accountable to no one, this is Dark Side of the Moon stuff).
Those trucks will go flying down US 36 at more than 70 mph—and they will be confronted with our farming equipment, which will be moving down nearly 200 miles of US 36 at top speeds of 20-30 mph during both daylight and evening hours. Who will win those contests?
Our undertakers. They have a saying for this already in Macon County: “Tractors and tractor-trailers do not mix.”
An additional factor to consider is that substantial stretches of US 36 are already built to interstate standards. In addition to the 8 miles from the Mississippi to US 24 junction, there is another 8 miles from Macon to Callao, nearly the same from the Missouri River through St. Joseph, and several miles each at Monroe City, Shelbina, Marceline, Brookfield, and Chillicothe. All told, as much as 15-20% of the road has already been built to interstate standards. If you don’t believe me, take a look at any road atlas. Those blue lines are the same as for interstates: “free limited access.”
The US 36 Corridor has nearly a dozen communities along its route already that can service travelers and trucks. Our tourism folks have cross-promoted each other for more than a decade already as “The Way of American Genius,” since our communities along US 36 were the homes of Mark Twain, Molly Brown, William Lear, Walt Disney, General Omar Bradley, General John J. Pershing, Walter Cronkite, Jesse James, and J.C. Penney, and feature the creation of Sliced Bread and the Pony Express. We are open for business and ready for visitors. All we need is an interstate highway to fulfill the promise of our region. Fun fact: those communities are already equipped with sufficient infrastructure to power up the electric vehicle fleet that we anticipate will flood the highways in the next decade. Try finding a recharging station west of Boonville on I-70.
Our construction approach is simple, and has been endorsed by the Missouri Farm Bureau for Southeast Missouri’s second interstate, I-57. We will save on right-of-way costs by building two new lanes in the existing median that MoDOT already owns. We construct concrete barriers to separate the lanes like MoDOT does already in St. Louis on I-64 and we will use the difference in funds saved to build as many bridges as the Feds will allow to create the most farmer-friendly interstate highway in the United States. I have run this concept by a number of engineers already and have been assured that this will work. This approach will enable us to save the lives of our farmers while simultaneously increasing economic activity (and wages) for the communities along that nearly 200-mile roadway. That will result in billions in new investment and the growth of our communities.
(P.S. to our friends in St. Louis—do you want 40,000 trucks a day coming in from Chicago and Indianapolis on your interstates until the end of time? Considering that each semi represents 3 passenger car lengths, that equals 120,000 cars a day in your midst. What time does that add to your commute? How does that affect your insurance rates? Their weight will tear up your new and improved roadways and their constant pollution does not do much for your air quality. The average passenger car weighs 4000 pounds. A properly loaded semi weighs 80,000 pounds. By weight, that is the equivalent of 800,000 passenger cars rolling through St. Louis EVERY DAY. Does anyone realize that? Building I-72 will take plenty of them off your roads for the duration). To our friends along I-35 from Cameron to the Northland—we have you covered. You will see significant growth immediately when I-72 is finished. To those of you between I-35 and I-29—you will have the trifecta—3 interstates in your midst. If we can see this, why on Earth is the other MoDOT incapable of seeing the same dynamic?
While the other the other MoDOT has been ignoring us for decades, Northeast Missouri continues to do everything we can to improve our infrastructure to improve the profitability of our #1 industry: agriculture. Our latest progress has been with ports. We have ports in various stages of construction from Clarksville to Alexandria on the Upper Mississippi. Our next major project will be to assist with the modernization of every lock and dam from Clarksville to Keokuk, Iowa to 1200-foot locking chambers so we can move much more product than ever before to feed our planet. Having Interstate highway access will accelerate this process and bring jobs to a region of Missouri that is in dire need of the economic progress that I-72 will provide.
I-72 is the key to any future growth we can ever expect. As literally billions flow into the counties along I-70, with hundreds of millions more on the way to the counties along I-44, the opportunity for our region to grow along similar lines recedes further into the distance—and at the rate we are going, into oblivion. My Budget request in 2023 and 2024 for $2.5 million for a feasibility study for I-72 passed both the House and Senate with stakeholder support from the Chariton River to the Mississippi and was less than 1/1000th of the funds sent to I-70 and less than 1/200th of the funds being sent to I-44. Those requests were vetoed—because I-72 was not in “The STIP.” Can you say, “Catch-22?”
I-72 is existential for Northeast Missouri. If I-72 is not added to the STIP now, it never will. Every engineer I have talked to, and I talk to a lot, have told us that the approach we propose is feasible. The economic impact will be tremendous and immediate—from construction funding through the steady stream of increased sales tax that more visitors by definition bring. Yet we cannot get the time of day to fund something as simple as an engineering study. That is beyond messed up.
As for our recourse as a region—there is none. There is no appeal process for the STIP. There is no accountability whatsoever for MoDOT failing to ensure economic development outside urban and suburban areas (which always have funding because of the Holy Grail of MoDOT: Traffic Counts). Even the way counties are allocated funds is skewed by MoDOT in favor of populated areas, while Rural roads are pounded into dust, our school buses travel across dangerous bridges and gravel roads, and our residents are killed frequently on 2-lane roads.
If Northeast Missouri was a small child, we would be hot-lined for failure to thrive.
Adding I-72 to the STIP will right that historic wrong. All the other MoDOT has to do is list I-72 in Unfunded Needs—and we will take care of the rest.
As usual.
State Representative 5th District
