Subject: Missouri Department of Transportation

• Fear doesn’t always strike out — sometimes it’s a line drive at your head

  March 26, 2009

• Missouri Dumps its Bike Leader

  November 5, 2007

• MoDOT Sign Does Little to Curb Road Rage

  April 28, 2008

• Daily Briefs: Victory for the Hobbits of Middle-Earth League Baseball

  June 3, 2008

• KC's wish list for Obama's stimulus

  After spending part of his holiday in swimming trunks, president-elect Buff Bam arrived in D.C. this week and dug into the difficult task of salvaging the economy. In recent weeks, he's outlined his vision for a stimulus package that would put federal dollars into shovel-ready infrastructure projects. This week his aides hinted that the tab for Obama's plan could reach  $775 billion. States and cities are scrambling for a piece of it, and KCMO leaders have prepared a lengthy wish list. Th

  January 7, 2009

• Senator Luann Ridgeway: Patron Saint of Missouri Motorcyclists

  If Governor Jay Nixon signs Senate Bill 202 into law, Missouri motorcyclists over 21years of age will no longer be bound by law to wear helmets when they ride, except on state highways. Cyclists who love the feel of the wind in their hair (and hate to have government regulations weighing on their handlebars) have Clay County Republican Sen. Luann Ridgeway to thank if the helmet law dies at Nixon's hands this month. Ridgeway says that she's been trying to bury Missouri's helmet law since shortly

  June 2, 2009

• One For The Price Of Two

  November 22, 2001

• MoDOT stimulus funds = FAIL

  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (otherwise known as "the bailout," "the stimulus plan" or "Porkulus," depending on whom you ask) is very clear in its requirements regarding the funding of road and bridge projects. The Missouri Department of Transportation will receive $577 million of this stimulus cashola to distribute to projects, if: (1) the projects can get under way in 90 days or less, (2) they will take no more than three years to complete, (3) they create jobs and (4) they are

  March 19, 2009

• Pole Position

  August 3, 2006

• HNTB proposes parkland over Interstate 670 – so far, downtown parks disappoint

  December 18, 2008

• Like TIF, the city’s new light-rail plan stiffs the neediest parts of the city

  July 31, 2008

• MoDOT Tosses Cyclists Over the Handlebars

  April 17, 2008

• Strangler Strikes Again

  With a $1 million contract at stake, the road gang at HNTB leaves nothing to chance.

  November 8, 2007

• Using Their Noodle

  May 10, 2007

• Wheels of Misfortune

  July 27, 2006

• Springfield Nazis get punked by the Jewish Community Relations Bureau

  via the Springfield News-Leaderfrom an NSM siteThe Springfield, Missouri, chapter of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi organization, thought it would be cute to adopt a section of highway along West Bypass between Sunshine and Farm Road 142. MoDOT allowed them to put up a sign along the road bearing the group's name, and members posed with it, Seig Heil-ing and whatnot (pictured). Afterward, they went home, put on their swastika-print jammies and drifted off to thumb-sucking sleep, sec

  June 3, 2009

• Backwash

  We drag the river for stuff you didn't know you were missing.

  June 9, 2005

• Road Rage

  More people are fuming over traffic lights on Bruce R. Watkins Drive.

  May 26, 2005

• The Concrete Bungle

  Kansas City’s engineering giant helped choke downtown with freeways. Now it’s cashing in on its mistake.

  January 27, 2005

• The One That Got Away

  Independence gets a fake fishing hole, and Bannister Mall gets a big fish story.

  July 15, 2004

• Well Hung

  Avenue artists overcome adversity for the sake of public art.

  May 29, 2003

• Sad But True

  This year, we couldn't have made up the news if we tried.

  December 27, 2001

• Writes Of Passage

  Kansas City's young graffiti writers drop a few bombs on the elders.

  August 30, 2001

• Smokes & Mirrors

  Show me a billboard, and I'll show you litter with a home.

  September 28, 2000

• Man killed riding to his bike on I-29/35

  A bicyclist headed for the Isle of Capri Casino was killed early Tuesday -- a little more than a week after Bike Week. Downtown CouncilPaseo bridgeFox 4 says police have identified the bicyclist as 33-year-old Junior Christopher, who worked at the casino. The Kansas City Star says Christopher was hit from behind by a semi-trailer while northbound on Interstate 29/35, south of Front Street, in a construction area without a shoulder. The truck driver told police he didn't see Christopher in the d

  May 27, 2009

• Should state officials double as lobbyists? Cyclists say no

  The relationship between cyclists and the Missouri Department of Transportation is marked with plenty of pot holes and dead ends. If you ask MoDOT, cyclists don't demand or use the roads enough to warrant the dollars they demand. If you ask bike advocates, they might complain that the state agency might as well be called the "Department of Single-Occupant Automobile Transportation" for all the attention they pay to alternative forms of transit. The most notable divide over the past several

  June 18, 2009

• Guerrilla gardener targets KC highway

  The urban guerrilla arrives by bike, his plaid, farmer-like shirt unbuttoned and his hair matted with sweat from the near-100-degree heat. The dirt under his nails indicates that he's a gardener. But he's doesn't want to reveal too much about his efforts greening the city. He will speak only on condition of anonymity. His nom de guerre: G3. His tactic: hijacking public land for undercover food production.

  June 29, 2009

• Put 'em back on, bikers: Nixon vetoes repeal of helmet law

  Despite more than a thousand letters and e-mails begging Gov. Jay Nixon to sign a bill that would strike down Missouri's helmet law, Nixon vetoed it today. The bill would have allowed motorcycle riders 21 and over to ride helmetless on all roads except interstate highways.Missouri Department of Transportation director Pete Rahn issued this statement: "I want to thank Governor Jay Nixon for showing courageous and compassionate leadership by vetoing the repeal of the motorcycle helmet law. He has

  July 2, 2009

• $29 million road (a)head for Grandview

  ​Anticipating increased traffic when industry in the area expands and the NNSA/Honeywell facility comes online, officials from Missouri Department of Transportation and City of Kansas City are pushing a $28.9 million road project to improve the interchange of Botts Road and Missouri 150 in Grandview.MoDot officials say the "diverging diamond" configuration is suited to handle additional car traffic, which will result from additional industrial development in the area, including about 2,100 new

  July 29, 2009

• MoDOT’s crappy maintenance of inner-city bridges is no accident — just look

  August 27, 2009

• The latest Pitch and 21 things we learned this week

  ​U.S. soldiers are committing suicide in record numbers, and the Army is struggling to fix the problem. This week's Pitch feature story, "Exit Strategy," looks at one solider who almost became a statistic. Also, Martin covers MoDOT's shoddy maintenance of inner-city bridges. Ferruzza reviews Café Trio. And Buckle Bunny talks tour managing. 1. Lynn Jenkins' "hope" for change is white. 2. Living next to a Rockhurst frat sucks. 3. Riverfront Heritage Trail is pretty cool. 4. 26 homicides in KCK.

  August 28, 2009

• MoDOT boss joins Funk in wonk ring of honor

  MoDOTPete Rahn: Mad governing skills​Governing magazine looks at Missouri and sees competence.Pete Rahn, the state's transportation director, has made the magazine's list of Public Officials of the Year. Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser made the list in 2003, when he was city auditor.Rahn received praise for the Department of Transportation's reconstruction of a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 64. MoDOT shut down five-mile segments instead of going the orange-barrel route. The project will be c

  November 3, 2009