The Parkville Board of Aldermen approved a letter of support on Tuesday to be sent to the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) and earmarked $200,000 to help cover the cost of building a new bridge on Hwy. 9 over the White Alloe Creek.
“MoDOT has requested this money be available to cover the cost,” said Dan Koch, project manager for Parkville. “This letter is not a commitment to spend the funds.”
In order to commit the funds to the project, the $200,000 has to come out of another fund. Koch said the money would come from the 2009 budget for doing asphalt overlay programs in Parkville.
Nearly $277,000 was budgeted for the overlay projects, leaving only $77,000 in the fund. According to Koch, the overlay projects would have to be pushed back to 2010 and the projects for 2010 would be pushed back another year.
MoDOT expects the new bridge project to cost around $400,000 and will cover half of the cost.
According to Koch, the bridge will feature two 12 foot lanes for traffic and also a six foot sidewalk on each side of the roadway. Any extra features, such as lights or ornamental decorating, will be the financial responsibility of Parkville
MoDOT will move forward to design the new bridge and submit the plans to Parkville. Once the bridge is designed, there will be no obligation for Parkville to immediately build the bridge.
One of the aldermen asked if there were any plans to redesign the nearby roads, which may result in a different design for the bridge.
“Should we look into adding a third lane for southbound traffic to turn left?” asked Gerry Richardson, alderman.
“Right now we have not looked into it,” said Koch. “That would put the road really close to the fire department and we would need to acquire land from the post office and there would be a lot of red tape involved. We would need to reconfigure the Parkville ‘triangle’.”
“But shouldn’t we look into that now rather than having to pay another $200,000 later?” responded Richardson.