More than $9.3 million worth of transportation improvements are coming to Springfield, with 80 percent of the cost, $7.5 million, being paid for by the U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
The Springfield City Council voted to enter into a trio of Surface Transportation Block Grant Program agreements with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission at its Aug. 7 meeting, allocating money previously awarded to the city for transportation projects around Springfield.
The grants will fund resurfacing on primary and secondary arterial and collector streets, sidewalk and ramp improvements, and a variety of traffic management system improvements.
While the funding originates from the congressional Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill of 2021, it was awarded to Springfield by the Missouri Department of Transportation, which the city is working with alongside the Ozarks Transportation Organization to get the program agreement executed and the street projects underway.
The city will pay the entire cost of each project and be reimbursed 80 percent of the cost, which could come in under the amount each contract appropriates, Springfield traffic engineer Tom Dancey explained.
Grant to fund equipment purchases
The transportation management system improvements include a variety of equipment at different locations around Springfield, including traffic signal controllers, traffic cabinet door security locks, traffic signal heads, accessible pedestrian signals, dynamic message signs, traffic monitoring video cameras, vehicle detection systems, traffic network communications equipment and rectangular rapid flashing beacons for crosswalks.
Dancey said some pieces of equipment they are replacing have been discontinued by manufacturers, and so the manufacturers no longer support maintenance on certain equipment.
The work is also being funded, in part, by the ⅛-cent transportation sales tax fund balance reserves, at $612,500, along with $2.45 million in grant funding.
Because the installations will be done by Springfield city employees, the federal aid will only be used for purchasing the new equipment, which Dancey said made it a “much simpler” process.
“If we were constructing a new road or acquiring right away and all that, it's a more complicated process to go through for federal funds,” he said. “It makes it attractive for us to utilize those on a project like this.”
Dancey said that the cost of the equipment continues to increase with inflation, with the message signs priced between $25,000 to $30,000, $2,500 for traffic cameras and about $4,500 for traffic signal controllers.
“That's a pretty hefty price tag, so it's nice to be able to utilize federal funds to do that,” Dancey said.
At the Aug. 7 meeting, Councilmember Craig Hosmer expressed support for the inclusion of traffic cameras among the equipment to be purchased with the grant, and inquired about how much money it would take to purchase cameras for more intersections across Springfield.
“It seems like, in the long run, that $2,500 per intersection would be money well spent,” Hosmer said. “If you can solve one crime and eliminate all the manpower hours that (Springfield police) have to spend trying to solve something that we’re not giving them the technology they need.”
Dancey hopes to be able to begin purchasing equipment this fall. He and other Springfield employees will have until mid-2025 to buy everything. Dancey told council members the city government would likely purchase all of the equipment at once, because MoDOT does not want Springfield to stockpile the equipment.
Resurfacing, ADA-related improvements
The resurfacing is being funded by $4,856,250, which is made up of $3,885,000 in grant money and $971,250 from the city’s ⅛-cent transportation sales tax fund balance reserves, which has already been budgeted.
Stretches of high-traffic collector and arterial streets that will be resurfaced include Norton Road, Grant Avenue, High Street, Division Street, Packer Road, Fremont Avenue, Grand Street, Scenic Avenue, Catalpa Street, Oak Grove Avenue, Golden Avenue, Campbell Avenue, Republic Road, Lone Pine Avenue and Briar Street.
The project schedule requires the construction contract to be awarded and a planning study completed by October 2024.
“I just think that’s great that the federal government is paying so much to resurface our streets here locally, it’s wonderful,” Councilmember Derek Lee said at the City Council’s Aug. 1 work session.
ADA-related improvements entail sidewalk and intersection sidewalk ramp improvements along the same primary and secondary arterial and collector streets covered by the resurfacing grant.
The city’s 20 percent will cover up to $291,250 from the ¼-cent capital improvement sales tax fund balance reserves, and $1,165,000 in federal grants. The ADA improvements follow a similar timeline as the resurfacing project.
