By BRAD COOPER
The Kansas City Star
The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission today named Kevin Keith as its new director.
Keith, who has been serving as interim director since the spring, replaces Pete Rahn, who was largely credited for rebuilding the reputation of the Missouri Department of Transportation. Rahn left to become a consultant at HNTB, a national transportation consulting company.
“Kevin Keith is a proven leader,” Highway Commission Chairman Rudy Farber said.
“He has been instrumental in the dramatic improvement of MoDOT and has been recognized for his innovative leadership at the national level. We have full confidence in his ability to tackle the significant transportation challenges Missouri faces in the coming years.”
Keith has been at MoDOT for 25 years, most recently as its chief engineer.
Before becoming chief engineer, he worked as transportation planning director and district engineer for MoDOT in St. Joseph.
Keith takes the helm of MoDOT at a time when the agency is running out of money for new transportation projects. Not only has the state exhausted its Amendment 3 money that voters approved several years ago, there’s no sign that a new Congress is in the mood for increasing spending on transportation.
The highway commission is currently planning to spend $5.7 billion plan from 2011 to 2015. The plan emphasizes maintenance of Missouri’s most traveled highways as annual highway spending will drop by about two-thirds between now and 2015.
Missouri still plans to meet its commitments to major projects in the last plan — like a new interchange at Interstate 435 and Front Street, improvements to Chouteau Trafficway and the Flintlock Flyover above Interstate 35 in the Northland.
But going forward, the state will move into a preservation mode and try to maintain the improved road conditions that followed voter approval of Amendment 3 in 2004.