February 23,
2011
Infrastructure – The Foundation of
Building a Greater St. Louis
Welcome to the
first in an ongoing series of Special Editions of the RCGAdvocate
devoted to infrastructure issues in our region. The
St. Louis RCGA focuses its infrastructure advocacy on
funding, building and maintaining a first-class infrastructure
system to promote economic growth of the bi-state St. Louis
metropolitan area.
This first Special Edition focuses on two
major items: the new Mississippi River Bridge
and the Missouri Transportation Alliance
(MoTA), which is working to bring about a new
transportation vision for the future. Future Special
Editions will cover other important and timely topics.
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Clark Davis, Vice
Chairman of HOK,
is RCGA's Board
Chair for Infra-
structure and sits
on the Private
Sector Infra-
structure Council.
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RCGA's education and advocacy for
infrastructure enhancement often takes place with the
Private Sector Infrastructure Council, a
collaboration of the RCGA, Regional Business Council, Civic
Progress, Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois, and St.
Charles Partners for Progress. The Council’s work includes a
broad range of surface transportation issues (e.g., roads,
bridges, transit, passenger and freight rail), aviation matters,
and water issues (e.g., levees, ports, waterways, stormwater and
wastewater).
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Susan Stauder,
RCGA's Vice-
President for
Infrastructure
and Public
Policy. |
Susan Stauder, Vice-President for
Infrastructure and Public Policy at the RCGA, heads up
our infrastructure activities and works to help bring to fruition
the region’s major infrastructure projects.
Susan also serves as Chair of the St.
Louis City Planning Commission and of the Downtown Economic
Stimulus Authority of the City of St. Louis. She was
recruited to the RCGA in 2002, bringing with her more than 25
years of diverse infrastructure and public policy experience and
a strong working relationship with transportation and public
policy leaders throughout the region and the states of Missouri
and Illinois.
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Look for the new Mississippi River Bridge
to rise out of the water this spring!
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Rendering of the new Mississippi River
Bridge. The first
construction contract for the
massive $670 million project
was awarded in June
2009. The project remains on schedule
and is expected to be
completed by 2014.
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Work continues apace on the foundations
for the main span of the new bridge. Finishing the
bridge foundations and enough of the two towers to raise them
above flood stage before the spring's high water is important to
keeping the project on schedule. Last fall
cofferdams were constructed out of interlocking sheets of steel
driven into the mud on the river’s bottom. Cofferdams are temporary
enclosures that allow water to be pumped out to provide a dry
river bottom for construction. The dams were sealed with a
13-foot deep seal course of concrete on the inside base.
After water was pumped out, ironworkers began constructing
networks of reinforced bars that will provide support for the
concrete foundations of the bridge’s twin 400-foot towers.
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Crews install 15-foot high
reinforced steel framework on the cofferdam floor to prepare for
adding concrete to form foundations for the two 400-foot
towers. This past summer, twelve drilled columns were
constructed to secure the foundations on the Illinois and
Missouri sides of the river. Each 11.5-foot column goes
through 30 feet of water, 70 feet of silt and 20 feet into
bedrock. (Source of photos and diagram:
MoDOT.)
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Aesthetic
Lighting of Bridge – Enhancing the Downtown
Skyline
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A rendering of the new Mississippi
River
Bridge at night with
aesthetic lighting.
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Since the top of the two towers
of the new bridge will rise more than 400
feet above the river, they create a
significant addition to the downtown
skyline. With a main span of 1,500 feet, the new
bridge is twice the length of the Clark Bridge in Alton and will
be nearly twice its height.
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Bruce
Holland,
President & CEO
of Holland
Construction
Services, is an
RCGA Board
member and
Chair
of the Aesthetic
Lighting
Taskforce.
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MoDOT and IDOT will provide
functional lighting for the bridge, but if there is to be
aesthetic lighting, it must be financed outside the established
budget of $670 million for the project. The
capital cost for aesthetic lighting will be $1.925 million, with
an additional annual operating and maintenance cost of
$50,000. A special Aesthetic Lighting Task Force,
chaired by RCGA Board member Bruce Holland, President
& CEO of Holland Construction Services, has
been working to help identify funding to provide lighting for the
bridge. IDOT has agreed to provide half of the capital cost
of installing the aesthetic lighting. In Missouri, federal
Transportation Enhancement grant funding is being sought.
The Task Force will continue to work with the East-West Gateway
Council of Governments and the City of St. Louis to pursue the
goal of insuring that the massive new bridge is a positive
addition to the nighttime skyline of the region.
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Funding Missouri’s
Transportation Needs – The Path Forward
The Missouri Transportation Alliance
(MoTA) – a state-wide, nonpartisan group of transportation
stakeholders, first responders, small businesses,
cities, counties and community leaders – met on January
28th in Jefferson City to launch a ramped-up effort
to expand the dialogue on urgent transportation needs and
dwindling resources, and engage Missourians in coming together to
find a solution. The RCGA has been an active member and
supporter of MoTA.
Since 2008, MoDOT’s construction program has been
reduced by half. (See graph at right.)
Funding from Amendment 3, approved by Missouri voters in
November 2004, has provided critical bonding capacity for
transportation projects, but was fully deployed as of 2009.
Federal funding for transportation is also expected to diminish
over the next several years. The new economic
realities are that – without increased resources – MoDOT can no
longer maintain roads and bridges in Missouri to keep our
families safe, or make necessary infrastructure improvements to
help grow our economy.
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(from left) MoTA Steering
Committee Co-Chair Mike
DeCola, RCGA Board
member & CEO of Mississippi Lime
Co.; MoTA
Stakeholders' Committee Chair Bill McKenna;
and MoTA Steering
Committee Co-Chair Scott Schnuck,
Private Sector Infrastructure
Council Chair and Chairman
& CEO of Schnuck Markets
Inc.
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MoTA has conducted more than 200 public
meetings in each of MoDOT’s Districts over the past 18 months,
and gathered input to craft a solution to address the cuts in
state transportation funding and dwindling federal funds that
face the state's transportation programs.
Bill McKenna and
Susan Stauder are Co-Chairs of the St.
Louis district for MoTA, and have held numerous meetings
with the public, interested groups and elected officials to
gather local perspectives.
The public input from
these meetings across the state is
clear:
- Safety is not
negotiable!
- Investing in
Missouri’s transportation infrastructure means new jobs, new businesses
and new
opportunities.
- Missourians
demand accountability and transparency.
MoTA will be working with first
responders, small businesses, community leaders and citizens to
develop a funding solution over the next several months.
The Alliance has outlined steps that interested organizations and
individuals can take to help elevate the conversation.
To provide your input or learn more about
becoming an active supporter of the Alliance, visit www.missouritransportation.org.
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Five ways to Help
MoTA:
- Connect with
MoTA’s social media tools
- Publish MoTA’s articles in your newsletter
- Send a letter to the editor of your local paper
- Engage your members – actively encourage them to join
- Enlist 5 other stakeholders from your
region
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