KIRKSVILLE, MO -- For Thursday’s Facebook Story of The Day, many of you wanted to know more about the Missouri Department of Transportations five year plan and what it could mean for heartland roads.

The plan is constructed by MODOT every year and then put out for the public to comment on. Once public input is considered, the final transportation program will go up for approval.

“We have a five year plan that we do every year and we provide this plan about this time every year for public comment and it shows the projects that will be going into the area and our district so that we can get public input on those projects and possible suggestions and things that are further out that we may want to add to or address in these projects and we want to make sure these projects are what is important to the community. We work with RPC, which is the Regional Planning Commission, and the community leaders but we also want to provide our five year plan for public comment,” said MODOT North Area Engineer Amy Crawford.

The proposed program is available for public review now until June 1^st. Following the public review period, the comments will be presented to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission. They will review the comments and the final transportation program before considering it for approval at its meeting in Washington.

Unfortunately Missouri’s construction program has dropped from an average of 1.2 billion dollars in recent years to about 700 million dollars. MODOT says this is barely enough to maintain the existing system, much less tackle new projects. Because of the cutbacks, only a few projects are scheduled for the area and those are still a few years out.

The projects funded, but not until Fiscal Year 2015, include resurfacing and adding paved shoulders to Missouri 6 from Kirksville to Novinger and resurfacing Business 63 from Missouri 6 north to the new interchange.

The budget will likely to stay the same, but it is possible more funding could come in over the next few years as MODOT discusses plans to increase funding and incorporate new taxes.

“It is possible that the funding issues could change. Right now in the state government and federal government, our funding is provided by a gas tax and we know that we have a problem there and we know that gas taxes are probably not going to be the future funding for transportation. There are groups out there looking at future for funding in transportation. There is a blue ribbon panel that is meeting around the state that is going to ask the communities what is important to them and look into possible funding options. There looking at possible sales tax, changes to the gas tax, and other things as well. And the federal government is looking at this also for the future of transportation,” Crawford said.

For a link to the proposed five year plan where you can give input visit the Missouri Department of Transportations website http://modot.mo.gov/.