Cheryl Ball, MoDOT freight and waterways administrator, spoke to area business owners, people involved in the movement of freight and decision makers in the freight process, as well as various area elected officials, who were able to see the draft of the plan, make comments and ask questions.

“We hope that they’ll take a look at the draft freight network, to say, ‘Does this reflect where we think freight is moving,’ and make sure it make sense to them,” said Ball. “And the other piece of the puzzle that we would like them to take a look at is the goals for the state. We’ve identified 10 recommendations with freight goals that we would use to guide our decision making as we move forward. Do these goals reflect where they believe we need to be in the state with freight and transportation?”

Ball said the freight plan creates a baseline.

“It has decisions of analysis from objective data about the conditions and where things are at,” she said. “It sets a path for determining how all of the people, businesses and governmental entities in the state can work to achieve the same goal. And make sure that we are complimenting each other and not competing with each other. So this really sets a framework, a baseline for collaboration, movement forward in Missouri with transportation and infrastructure investment decisions to support our economy. To grow it, our quality of life and jobs.”

Ball claimed this area is a great part of the state for the freight plan to come to, as it is one of the fastest growing parts of Missouri and has a larger percentage of manufacturing companies.

“Those companies use the freight network both for raw materials coming in and for finished product going out,” Ball said. “Also it has a great workforce and they are looking for ways to expand their existing, very well qualified workforce. So this makes great interest and they’ll be great partners moving forward.”

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