Mid Rivers Newsmagazine 5-18-22

12 I NEWS I
May 18, 2022
MID RIVERS NEWSMAGAZINE
St. Peters looks toward improving roads,
bridges using federal funding
@MIDRIVERSNEWS
MIDRIVERSNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
By ROBIN SEATON JEFFERSON
The St. Peters Board of Aldermen in
April approved $4.3 million in federal
funding agreements for road and bridge
work in the city.
The Missouri Highway and Transportation
Commission agreements will provide
some $3.8 million in reimbursement funding
to the city for design, property acquisition
and construction costs through the
East-West Gateway Council of Governments.
Funded as part of the Transportation
Trust Fund, the projects include the reconstruction
of Barkwood Trails Drive and
Jungs Station Road, and improvements to
Mexico Road at Dardenne Creek Bridge.
The projects are part of St. Peters’ fiveyear
Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for
fiscal years 2021 through 2026 – a tool
city staff uses to assess and fund the
long term capital needs of the city such
as replacing and repairing deteriorating
infrastructure.
According to Burt Benesek, the city’s
transportation and development services
manager, these funding agreements
allow St. Peters to be reimbursed through
the federal Surface Transportation Program
(STP). The funds are administered
through the East-West Gateway and the
Missouri Department of Transportation
(MoDOT).
“We have a transportation sales tax,”
Benesek said. “So, along with funds
from the federal government and the St.
Charles County Road Board, St. Peters is
able to stretch that dollar (from the sales
tax) and make the best use of the taxpayer’s
dollar. We try to be good stewards of
taxpayer money.”
Benesek said the CIP lists and outlines
the projects, estimates their costs
and describes how they will be funded.
Projects in the plan are identified by city
departments and reviewed by city staff
and elected officials. Cost estimates are
also provided by city departments.
“There are roughly 547 lane miles of
pavement in the city,” Benesek said. “We
have a pavement management program to
identify our priorities.”
St. Peters adopted the Pavement Surface
Evaluation and Rating
(PASER) system several
years ago. Developed by
the University of Wisconsin,
PASER is a visual
inspection rating system
wherein staff examines
roadways and rates them
on a scale ranging from 1
to 10. For example, a designation
of 1 may point to
failed concrete or asphalt,
while 10 may indicate a
new freshly paved roadway.
The city then uses
that rating to correlate
what kind of maintenance
activity should take place.
Often, upon annual
review, roads may get the
same ratings. However,
certain considerations for how funds are
directed to road and bridge projects can
“break those ties,” Benesek said. They
might include whether the road is part
of a school route or whether it is a major
thoroughfare as well as concerns lodged
Jungs Station Road Resurfacing Project
(Source: City of St. Peters)
by citizens.
St. Peters’ transportation and development
services is responsible for the
maintenance of approximately 195 lane
miles of asphalt and 353 lane miles of
concrete. As the city’s pavement con-
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