The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) announced Tuesday that the General Assembly and Gov. Mike Parson had approved $3.25 million for the department’s Freight Enhancement Program in fiscal year 2023.
The funding is the most the program has received in its 10-year history.
“The additional funding enables us to begin working on the recommendations of the State Freight and Rail Plan and Gov. Parson’s Supply Chain Task Force’s Final Report,” said MoDOT Administrator of Freight and Waterways Cheryl Ball. “The goal is to make a better, more resilient freight system in Missouri.”
MoDOT said the money had been awarded to more than half of the applicants for funding. Previously, the department had prioritized the applications based on how well they aligned with goals outlined in the State Freight and Rail Plan’s (SFRP) and the Supply Chain Task Force’s Final Report. All of the projects required a minimum local match of at least 20 percent, the department said, and the funding cannot be used for roadway projects.
Funded projects includes ones supporting infrastructure containers on barges, short line rail improvements and a transload facility in the middle of the state, which will establish a facility to cross-load goods from trucks to rail and vice versa. Other projects included funds for equipment that would establish grain loading onto barges at the Port of Kansas City to allow local agriculture producers the ability to send their products to worldwide markets more easily.
The department said the projects are a first step toward addressing more than $500 million in unfunded needs on the modal freight system.