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News Release 479
DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES PLEASED WITH BOONVILLE BRIDGE DECISION
Volume 35-479 |
Contact: Connie Patterson |
(For immediate release) |
573-751-1010 |
JEFFERSON CITY, OCT. 23, 2007 -- Speaking on behalf of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Director Doyle Childers today expressed his gratitude that the Boonville bridge appeal was settled in the department's favor.
"This ends years of legal wrangling and the wasting of taxpayer dollars," Childers said. The Missouri Court of Appeals-Western District's findings confirmed the department's position that the State of Missouri has no property interest in the bridge across the Missouri River at Boonville.
Union Pacific plans to move the bridge to the Osage River. Removing a congested transportation bottleneck promises long-term economic benefits and enhanced commerce for Missouri and for the nation. Opponents wanted the bridge to be used as a duplicate Katy Trail and argued removing the bridge would jeopardize the trail.
"Relocating four of this bridge's five spans to Osage City will improve valuable rail transit without harming the Katy Trail in any way, shape or form," Childers said. "This will benefit both passengers and commerce at absolutely no cost to Missouri taxpayers."
The Department of Natural Resources' previous administration under Director Steve Mahfood attempted to assert ownership rights to the bridge. When Childers became department director, he filed an amendment stating that the department did not have any ownership rights to the bridge because it was specifically excluded from the 1987 agreement between the department and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The Cole County Circuit Court agreed with that position, and it was today affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
The department also was confident that the Katy Trail would not be jeopardized if the bridge were removed. The right-of-way still exists if the bridge is not in place. The State of Missouri, with financial assistance from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, constructed an extra lane on an adjacent highway bridge to provide Katy Trail access over the Missouri River more than a decade ago.
According to Childers, the Department of Natural Resources could not support the spending of multiple millions of Missouri's parks, soils and water sales tax dollars for a trail that would duplicate the existing Katy Trail. Instead, the department prefers to use state tax dollars to connect the Katy Trail into the Kansas City area and to maintain and repair the 225 miles of the existing Katy Trail.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources fully supports the local community preserving the Boonville bridge structure but acknowledges that it has no legal right to control what Union Pacific does with the bridge.
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