Despite cutbacks, MoDOT proceeds with local building

Less than three weeks after the state highway commission approved a plan that would cut Missouri Department of Transportation's budget by $512 million and close 135 facilities, Gainesville's maintenance facility is getting a new building.
Work is expected to be completed this week on a 50x150-foot building that will include nine bays to house trucks and other equipment. Buildet LLC, of Nevada, Mo., is handling the construction.
"This project was in the works long before the cutbacks were announced," said Angela Eden, a MoDOT spokesperson at the Springfield district office. Eden said the cost of the building is around $59,000.
"The current building at Gainesville was built in the 1950s," Eden said. "Equipment was much smaller back then. The trucks and everything have gotten bigger, and some of them will not fit in the current storage shed."
Eden said the old building will still be used to house equipment that will fit, but the new facility will house trucks and graders that were previously left out in the weather. She said she wasn't sure if some of the equipment from the Rueter facility in eastern Taney County would be housed at Gainesville.
"After an evaluation, some of the equipment will be sold and some may be shifted elsewhere," Eden said. "We're not sure what, if any, equipment will come to the Gainesville facility."
MoDOT had its budget cut by $512 million on June 8 after the state highway commission approved the "Bolder Five Year Plan," which was introduced by MoDOT just a month before.
The plan received opposition, particularly in southern Missouri where district offices were cut from four to two.

<p>Workers from Buildet LLC, of Nevada, Mo., frame up the new
50x150-foot structure at MoDOT's Gainesville facility.</p>