By ED HASSINGER

As the new director of MoDOT, I’m excited to work with our partners in the construction industry to deliver the largest STIP in Missouri’s history.

Together we have worked through some lean times in Missouri, but now we are in a great place with historic funding. My first priority as the new director, is to deliver this record program. With the increased funding comes accountability to show results to the governor, general assembly and the citizens of Missouri.

Working with you, our construction partners, we have delivered $10 billion in projects over the past 10 years. But now, we must do that same amount in the next five to seven years. We have a history of partnering and working together through value engineering ideas and design-build to innovate and improve. We want to continue to work with you to solve problems and get things done for Missouri.

An exciting step in that delivery occurred at the November Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission meeting with the award of the second Improve I-70 Design-Build project. This project extends from Warrenton to Wentzville, Mo. and includes not only the general revenue funding to add a third lane to I-70 but also (State Transportation Improvement Program) STIP funding for improvements at the railroad bridge in Wentzville, the I-70 and I-64 interchange and adding a third lane to I-64 from I-70 to Route K. The Commission selected Improve 70 Alliance Joint Venture as the apparent best-value proposer for this project. The joint venture team consists of Emery Sapp & Sons, Clarkson Construction, HNTB and Bartlett and West.

Safety is another focus area for me. We will continue to work on ways to improve the safety of the MoDOT team, the safety of your team members and subcontractors and the safety of the driving public on our roads. This year’s fatalities on Missouri roads are trending less than last year, but it will still total more than 800 and that’s too many. We must continue to look at ways to improve our work zone setups and to educate the public to buckle up, put the phone down, slow down and don’t drive impaired.

I look forward to our continued partnership to deliver projects for Missourians.

Ed Hassinger is director of the Missouri Dept. of Transportation.