Dive Brief:
- The Missouri Department of Transportation broke ground Wednesday on a $33 million expansion project that will add 255 truck parking spaces along I-70 by late 2028. The heavily traveled east-west freeway runs across the state and connects the bi-state metro areas of Kansas City and St. Louis.
- The project is being funded through a $93 million Department of Transportation Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant awarded to the state during FY 2023-2024. In addition to bolstering the state’s truck parking needs along I-70, it will also modernize the highway by reconstructing 191 miles to expand it from two lanes in each direction to three to improve safety, as well as traffic and freight flow.
- Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, who spoke at the ground breaking event, lauded federal and state leaders for “taking meaningful steps to improve roadway safety for all motorists.” He added, “projects like this show what is possible when infrastructure dollars are targeted where they actually matter.”
Dive Insight:
Missouri joins many government and private efforts to increase the number of available truck parking spots around the country. The American Transportation Research Institute, the research arm of the American Trucking Associations, has said drivers on average spend nearly an hour of drive time searching for parking, resulting in $6,813 in lost wages.
Spencer noted that there was only one safe designated truck parking spot for every 11 trucks on U.S. roads today.
“This isn't a minor inconvenience, it is a crisis years in the making that forces drivers into impossible decisions,” he said. Spencer added if a driver cannot find a place to park and exhausted their federally regulated hours of service, some are forced to choose between breaking the law by parking on highway shoulders or exit ramps.
“Breaking ground on a project that expands real pavement is the only way to solve a safety crisis that has been ignored for decades,” Spencer said.
Eric Kopisnki, director of Missouri’s Improve I-70 program told Trucking Dive the state’s truck parking project will make improvements to truck parking locations in Concordia, Boonville, Mineola and Wright City. Currently, the stretch of I-70 targeted by the project has only 219 truck parking spaces.
While the added spaces for commercial drivers are welcomed along I-70, Kopisnki said the state recognizes there are needs for more trucking spots across the state. Missouri maintains about 50 truck parking facilities across the state that provide around 1,250 spots to park.
The state is also home to about 100 private sites with roughly 7,675 truck parking spaces, Kopisnki said.
“Our state is keeping an eye on federal grants and other funding opportunities to invest in this area,” he said in an email.
