The Washington City Council followed suit of local transportation officials in backing a Warren County plan for grants to fund a connection to the Missouri River bridge.

The council last week agreed to submit a letter of support to the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) backing a Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant for the connection north of the new bridge.

Warren County officials are seeking a connection through low-lying land between Washington and Warren County during major flooding like that which occurred in May 2017. The situation could be more dire if the levee near Treloar would break.

The letter was requested by Warren County Commissioner Hubie Kluesner, Boonslick Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) Executive Director Chad Eggens and Washington Area Transportation Commission Chairman Bill Straatmann. 

On July 11, a “scoping and design” for flooding improvements from Washington to Dutzow was included in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) 2019-2023 approved by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission. Inclusion on the STIP only indicates the project will be evaluated, and does not include construction of the project. 

Last month, the transportation committee submitted a letter of support for the BUILD grant. The grant application deadline was July 19.

Past Studies

Straatmann cited studies in the 1980s and mid-1990s pointing to the need of a connection if Highway 47 north of the bridge is flooded. The studies indicated that the location of the new Highway 47 bridge needed to be known before plans could be developed for the connection.

The bridge is slated to open in December.

“The whole process, the whole corridor from one end to the other was all dependent on where the bridge was going,” Straatmann said. 

He noted the BUILD grants are previously known as Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER Discretionary Grants, which funded $10 million of the Highway 47 Missouri River bridge project.

“They are designed to help rural areas,” Straatmann said. “The area we are talking about hasn’t changed in 25 years — the study is still valid.

“We fit the criteria for this new grant,” he added.

According to Eggens, the entities will seek the maximum $25 million in BUILD grants.

“The whole premise is to get it out there and take a shot at it,” Straatmann added. “We hope there are not a lot of communities that apply for it. It is a shot in the dark but a good shot in the dark.”

About 13,000 people cross the Missouri River bridge daily, including 600 children on the north side of the bridge who attend classes in the Washington School District, as well as students who attend St. Francis Borgia Regional High School and other parochial schools.

“With all of that money invested in the bridge we would hate for it to  not be accessible,” said Mayor Sandy Lucy.

Several Entities

One possible route would extend from the bridge into St. Charles County and meet in the area of Highway T. 

That could include multiple entities being impacted by the connection, which could be beneficial in the grant application. Those include support from St. Charles County, Warren County, Franklin County and the city of Washington. 

About BUILD

According to the federal Department of Transportation (DOT), through the BUILD grants Congress has dedicated nearly $5.6 billion for nine rounds of national infrastructure investments to fund projects that have a significant local or regional impact.

The eligibility requirements of BUILD allow project sponsors to obtain funding for multimodal, multi-jurisdictional projects that are more difficult to support through traditional DOT programs.