Panama Canal expansion should bring more river traffic to Missouri

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Missouri Department of Transportation officials anticipate the Panama Canal Expansion Project will bring more shipping traffic to Missouri’s waterways.

Freight development administrator Ernie Perry says there won’t be a sudden boost in river traffic, but the larger canal will make river shipping more feasible.

"This is going to make the central United States, the Gulf, the Mississippi River and the Missouri River more attractive as a place to land these shipments versus the West Coast or the East Coast," Perry says. "They can come right up the waterway. It’s the most efficient way to get here. And then get distributed out of Missouri through your Southeast Missouri ports or on up the Mississippi or even the Missouri towards Kansas City."

Perry says MODOT will likely receive private sector support to upgrade port facilities to accommodate container shipments.

Ocean-bound freighters, trains and trucks all transport goods in containers.

That’s not the case on inland waterways, where goods are moved as bulk cargo. And that could be a holdup if more freight is going to load or unload at Missouri’s ports. But Perry believes the problem it can be done.

"You can get started right off the bat with cranes in all yours systems to load containers, unload them," Perry says. "We can get started one step at a time, and that’s what basically would be needed. That, along with the space. And our ports have that. Those types of facilities and that type of equipment in most cases."

The biggest obstacle would be different logistics and scheduling operations for bulk cargo and containers.

The widened Panama Canal is expected to open to traffic in 2014. It will double the waterway’s traffic.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

Photo: A ship passage through the Panama Canal. Wikipedia Commons.

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Southeast Missouri roads buckle from heat

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - The Missouri Department of Transportation, or MODOT, is reporting 30 to 35 cases of road buckling due to sweltering heat in its Southeast region.

The damage, known as blow-ups, is caused by the expansion of concrete in the intense summer heat.

Maintenance superintendent Keith Gentry says his crews are working to fix the problems.

“They can still pass over it unless they get real rough or something like that. We’ll go in and push some jackhammers and bust it up. We’ll put some coal mix in there for a temporary patch and then we’ll come back and fix it later on then with a permanent repair,” Gentry said.

Gentry says blow-ups have been pretty widespread throughout the region. Some have occurred on the Interstates and on Highways 60 and 25.

He says this summer has not brought more buckled roads than an average summer.

Jacob McCleland, KRCU

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MODOT to close facilities, cut positions

Missouri transportation officials have approved a plan to cut positions, close facilities and sell equipment to bolster money for road and bridge projects.

The Highways and Transportation Commission approved the proposal today.

Under the plan, about 1,200 positions will be cut, 131 facilities will be closed and 740 pieces of equipment will be sold.

Transportation Department Director Kevin Keith said the move will save $512 million by 2015.

"We begin tomorrow trying to implement this, trying to put as much money in roads and bridges in Missouri and continuing to work how to fix the long-term issue, and that is getting folks to invest in transportation," Keith said.

Some jobs already have been cut, and officials will use attrition and transfers to minimize layoffs.

The plan also calls for district offices in Macon, Joplin and Willow Springs to close.

About 70 to 80 workers will remain in each of those areas under the supervision of an area engineer.

Maria Altman, St. Louis Public Radio

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MODOT announces job cuts, facility closures

The Missouri Department of Transportation has announced plans to eliminate 12,000 jobs and close 135 facilities across the state.

The reductions will help the state cope with a sharp drop in funding for road construction.

For the past five years, MoDOT has been able to spend about $1.2 billion a year on road construction and maintenance.

Due to a variety of factors, that annual number has been cut in half for the next five years.

Department director Kevin Keith says the $500 million in savings the layoffs and closures will generate will be redirected to make up part of that reduction.

"This is hard," Keith said. "There is no other way for me to describe it. It’s hard on the employees, it’s hard on communities. But we’re in a situation where we have to move forward and do something."

The plan doesn’t solve the agency’s long-term funding problems, Keith told the state’s Highways and Transportation Commission. The department’s yearly budget for road construction and maintenance will drop by half next year.

"But it does I think keep faith with the citizens and taxpayers of Missouri that we’re doing everything we can with the resources we have first before we deal with the next problem and that is how do we increase investment in infrastructure in this state," Keith said.

The cuts will save the agency 512 million over five years, which will be used to leverage federal dollars. Keith says the restructuring also allows any new revenue to go directly to roads.

Keith said the bulk of the job reductions will be at the agency’s central office in Jefferson City.

The closed facilities include MoDOT district offices in Macon, Joplin, and Willow Springs.

Rachel Lippman, St. Louis Public Radio

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Fine particles of coal ash may be used in concrete

A professor at Missouri University S&T is looking to pave the way to stronger concrete while simultaneously keeping fly ash out of landfills.

Fly ash is the smallest particle found in coal ash. It is a byproduct of coal-burning power plants and has been used in concrete since the construction of Hoover Dam. But Dr. Jeffery Volz is developing a formula that will double the amount of fly ash used in concrete.

Although this will decrease carbon dioxide in the air, there is concern for heavy metals leaching out of the concrete into the water supply.

“When we put it in concrete, the chemistry is actually altered and if there are any trace elements, heavy metals, mercury, things like that they are all bound into the concrete. They don’t leach out of the concrete so it’s even better than putting it in a landfill plus we’re using a waste product which is going to cut down on cost which is going to cut down cost to Missouri residents,” Volz said.

Volz says adding fly ash to concrete would decrease the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. For every one pound of cement produced, one pound of carbon dioxide is also released.

“The roads we drive on, the buildings we live in, the bridges we drive over, the dams that hold back the water, the distribution systems for getting us water; all built out of concrete so it’s very much a staple in our civilization and if we can find a way to make it greener then it’s just going to make it that much better,” Volz said.

Volz is still developing the best formula and type of fly ash to use in concrete. The Missouri Department of Transportation has expressed an interest in using the newly developed recipe.

Katie Long, KRCU

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More rain saturates Cape Girardeau

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KRCU) - Cape Girardeau braced for more flash floods as more rain saturated the community.

The city has been offering a limited supply of sandbags as well as a Red Cross shelter for flood victims at the Osage Center.

Residents have been warned to avoid roads that have standing water, something that Cape Girardeau Emergency Management Coordinator Mark Hasheider says can be a serious problem.

"You know, one that we continue to express to the general public is to not drive through flooded roads," Hasheider said.

Residents can contact the fire department for local road closings and the Missouri Department of Transportation’s website www.MODOT.gov for an interactive map of highway and interstate closings.

Matthew Caldwell, KRCU

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