Owensville awarded $313K in state cost-share funds

Springfield Road realignment work includes $54,780 in matching funds

By Dave Marner, Managing Editor
Posted 1/11/23

A city of Owensville plan to reconnect Springfield Road will receive $313,027 in state funding through the Governor’s Transportation Cost Share Program.

Funding for the program comes from …

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Owensville awarded $313K in state cost-share funds

Springfield Road realignment work includes $54,780 in matching funds

Posted

A city of Owensville plan to reconnect Springfield Road will receive $313,027 in state funding through the Governor’s Transportation Cost Share Program.

Funding for the program comes from a $75 million appropriation approved during Missouri’s spring 2022 legislative session. The city’s portion for the cost-sharing project is $54,780, according to Owensville’s City Administrator Randy Blaske. The city was notified Jan. 4 of the award.

The city had been rejected for an earlier round of funding and resubmitted what Blaske called a “bare bones” plan to reconnect the two sections of road on either side of the Lakeside Book Company’s property where Springfield connects with Old Highway 19. An addition to the printing plant for a 60,000 thousand square foot roll paper storage warehouse necessitated the need to close the roadway. 

The project was undertaken with the agreement the city would take steps to reconnect the two sections of roadway to carry traffic north to Highway 19 and the Gasconade County R-2 School District’s campus.

“We reworked the original estimate and (developed) a bare bones quote, taking out curb and guttering which almost cut the original estimate in half,” according to Blaske in an email response to questions about the project from The Republican. “We applied for 80 percent on the grant application and that’s what we will receive. Our out of pocket will be the remaining 20 percent.”

The program is designed “to build partnerships with local communities to pool efforts and resources to deliver road and bridge projects,” according to the Missouri Department of Transportation.  “Demands for transportation improvements have greatly outpaced the funds available to meet them. In response to this demand, the Missouri Department of Transportation has established various mechanisms for successful public/public and public/private partnerships.”

Twenty percent of the funding for the cost-share program was set aside for projects “that demonstrate economic development,” according to MoDOT. A committee reviewing the applications worked in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Economic Development (DED) “to select projects with the greatest economic benefit to the state.”

The city participated in a similar project previously to create a center turn lane on Highway 28 from Krausetown Road to the upper entrance to Walmart. 

The city will be working with their contracted engineering firm from Archer-Elgin to develop the final bidding specifications. Owensville’s Board of Aldermen is scheduled to meet again at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, due to the Martin Luther King. Jr., national holiday being observed Monday, Jan. 16. Blaske did not expect the bidding specifications to be finalized by then.

“Our engineering team still has to get some approval and red tape items confirmed with MODOT before we draft specs and go out for bid and I don’t see that happening by the Jan. 17th meeting.” Blaske replied in an email.