Interstate 70

Skip the background info; jump to the projects that need resisting

Highway Info

I-70 runs east-west across the country, paralleling I-40 from Denver to the East Coast. Currently, the average daily traffic throughout the entire corridor is over 45,000 with a maximum over 250,000. Average daily truck traffic is over 11,000 with a maximum over 26,000. Among the 240 mile urban segment included in the Corridors of the Future grant, over 53 percent is currently under heavy congestion. Without any further improvement to the corridor, the projected 2035 average daily traffic will be over 100,000 which includes over 25,000 trucks. By 2035, 97 percent of urban segments will be under heavy congestion. Congestion for non-urban segments will increase from the current 16 percent to over 87 percent.

—info. from US Department of Transportation, “Corridors of the Future Fact Sheet”

Corridors of the Future Grant

Application submitted by Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. Funding allocated for:

• $3 million to study feasability of proposed truck-only lanes

• $2 million to study environmental impacts of proposed truck-only lanes

The I-70 corridor throughout the four states is over 750 miles with approximately 240 miles traversing through urban areas.

Truck-Only Lanes

The concept proposes adding four dedicated truck lanes to the existing infrastructure from Kansas City, MO to Wheeling, WV (on the Ohio border) — two in each direction, with at least one interchange per county providing access to the truck lanes. The plan also includes, conceptually, truck staging areas.

These lanes present the opportunity to pilot size and weight increases on a facility dedicated to trucks. They are seen as a way to reduce congestion, improve safety, and offset the maintenance costs of general purpose lanes. The four states feel that dedicated truck lanes would allow them to “attract freight movement from other parallel routes.” Once they have attracted that increased traffic, they plan to make I-70 a toll road.

Currently the states are working on a development agreement so that they can begin the feasibility studies for this project. The study is expected to begin in July 2008.

Not having an agreement between the states, and not even knowing if this project is feasible has not stopped them from getting the propaganda machine up and running. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) recently posted a video to You Tube to sell this idea to the general public. The video certainly explains why I-70 is important to global trade, although it inexplicably assumes this is also good for people in general. It also bemoans the lack of funding for the project, probably to prep people for increased transportation taxes or tolls. MoDOT has also created a website describing how wonderful and important I-70 is. The site describes how the highway is the “engine” for 50 years of “growth and prosperity.” MoDOT is trying to sell the idea that with more and more international freight moving through their state to other places they’ll be able to profit off of it somehow. Seeing as how it’s unable to describe how this profit will take place, it spends most of its time talking about how horrifically unsafe the current highway is and how new, “environmentally sound” truck only lanes will make the road safer for everyone’s family.

St. Louis Bridge

Illinois and Missouri are also planning a 4-lane I-70 bridge across the Mississippi River in St. Louis. The governors recently announced that the bridge will not be tolled, but analysts say that an eventual toll is likely to help pay for the truck-only lanes. While much smaller than the 8-lanes originally planned, the bridge might eventually be expanded to six. Construction is projected to take five years, and to be complete by 2015.