RES012698 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

RESOLUTION WHEREAS, the region's population has increased by very little in the last 25 years, but the amount of developed land has dramatically increased; and WHEREAS, this imbalance between the rate of population increase and the rate of land development has been unsustainable, causing disproportionate highway expenditures for expansion projects as compared to maintenance and modernization of the built system; and WHEREAS, the proposed Page Avenue Freeway and Bridge will bring the total freeway/interstate bridge lanes between St. Louis County and St. Charles County to 32 from 9 in 1977; and WHEREAS, 32 bridge lanes across the Missouri River exceeds the number of freeway/interstate lanes between St. Louis City and St. Louis County; and WHEREAS, the $250,000,000 370 Freeway and Bridge across the Missouri River recently opened; and WHEREAS, Highway 40 is scheduled to be widened and improved to interstate standards in St. Charles; and WHEREAS, the Missouri Department of Transportation's official cost estimates for the Page Avenue Freeway have increased from $372,000,000 to $550,000,000 since 1995; and WHEREAS, there is growing recognition that the region has not been successful in solving overall congestion problems by constructing new roads and may, in fact, be contributing to the congestion problem by doing so, at great expense to taxpayers; and WHEREAS, the Page project is scheduled to utilize one-third of the region's state and federal highway funds for the next three years, and with additional costs, will utilize similar percentages for the next eight years; and WHEREAS, state gasoline taxes have increased ten cents per gallon in the last ten years, and the Governor's Total Transportation Commission has recommended a one cent statewide sales tax increase, primarily for highways, thereby providing further proof of our inability to sustain patterns of highway expansion and outward land development; and