The good news in Missouri: Roads will soon get much better. The bad news: Lots of orange barrels are in your future.

The state’s Department of Transportation announced a plan to do that Wednesday, Nov. 10, just a week after the state’s voters passed Constitutional Amendment No. 3.

That measure requires the state to spend all fuel tax, motor vehicle tax and vehicle fee money on roads. Previously, much of that money paid for other state government responsibilities.

The effort is being called the Smooth Roads Initiative. Under the effort, the department will spend roughly $400 million to add smoother paving, brighter road markings and other safety improvements to 2,200 miles of roads. In addition, other safety work that was already scheduled will be moved up.

The initiative is the first part of a three-part plan to use funds from the ballot initiative, the department said in a statement.

The Kansas City Star reported work could begin under the Smooth Roads Initiative as soon as April of 2005.

Voters statewide on Nov. 2 overwhelming approved Amendment No. 3. The measure which requires “all revenues from the existing motor vehicle fuel tax (less collection costs) be used only for state and local highways, roads and bridges.” It also calls for the use of all other vehicle taxes and fees to pay off the state’s highway bonds.

More than 78 percent of those voting – 1.9 million – approved the measure, with only 21 percent – roughly 521,000 – voting against it, according to figures from the Missouri Secretary of State’s office.

OOIDA has long opposed spending fuel taxes and vehicle fees for non-highway purposes.

Missouri’s highways and highway funding have been a political bone of contention for years.

Many of the highways are showing their age, and the state’s Department of Transportation reneged in recent years on a 1992 promise to build a four-lane divided highway to every community in the state with over 5,000 in population. Even though the department abandoned the plan, it kept the tax that supported it.

In addition, state officials recently proposed the idea of adding tolls to increase the number of lanes on Interstate 70, the main east-west route between the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas. The state’s constitution forbids tolling, and voters in Missouri have twice rejected proposals to change that provision.