Stouffer: MoDOT Considering Major Restructuring Plans

The state agency responsible for maintaining our roads and bridges is preparing for significant change. While no official report has been published or approved, the director of the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has been working on a plan to restructure one of the state’s largest departments. The details are still forthcoming.

Transportation is personal to all of us. We rely on our state’s system to safely move people, goods and services as efficiently as possible. Today’s economic reality is that we must require government to do more with less. In 2011, funding for transportation in Missouri is half of what it once was – the agency’s construction program that averaged $1.2 billion is now about $600 million a year.

To put more money on our roads, MoDOT must become more efficient. In addition, federal funding often follows what the state agency puts into roads, but not administration.

This means MoDOT must reboot a workforce from design-and-build to mostly maintenance. In the meantime, the organization plans to reduce payroll by about 400 employees and restructure its delivery system to continue to meet the state’s needs and honor taxpayers. Most of this will be through attrition, but the reality is this: with fewer funds, the organization must reduce equipment, facilities and payroll to make ends meet.

MoDOT was last reorganized in the 1930s, when today’s 10 districts were established. The engineers in charge of each region are now housed in St. Joseph, Macon, Hannibal, Lee’s Summit, Jefferson City, Chesterfield, Joplin, Springfield, Willow Springs and Sikeston. The statewide organization is headquartered in Jefferson City. Restructuring plans may include reducing district offices to create a more regional approach.

In rural areas, we often call MoDOT’s maintenance sheds “barns.” This is with good reason. When the current maintenance shed maps were established in the 1920s, they were designed to allow one team of mules to pull a plow to one end of the area and back in one day’s time. Today’s technologies have provided much quicker response times to transportation needs, even though the state is maintaining many more miles of roads.

A few years ago, MoDOT closed a shed in Waverly. Local folks were furious and I was, too. We set a course of action that we would wait for the winter to prove that the closure reduced services, including snow removal. What we learned was the employees at Waverly were moved to Concordia, where today’s larger and more modern equipment could service the expanded area. We never heard from constituents that winter, and while I assume snow removal over this winter was as rough there as elsewhere, I must assume services have been consistent throughout the area.

I realize government needs a “right-sizing” and hope this organization, like others, can do more with less as we continue to reduce the size of government to appropriate levels. I also know transportation and these jobs are personal to my constituents. I am anxiously awaiting any restructuring plans MoDOT has to offer.