Jefferson County - East-West Gateway Coordinating Council

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Inventory of Infrastructures
Jefferson County – Section 1
County infrastructures include transportation, communications, water/sewer,
electricity and natural gas, solid waste disposal, law enforcement, fire protection,
emergency medical services and emergency management.
Transportation
The road network has a great impact on Jefferson County. On the eastern side of the
county lies the primary north/south transportation route, Interstate I-55. I-55 connects the
St. Louis region to points north and south. Interstate I-44 lies in the northwest corner of
the county connecting the region to areas southwest and northeast. Internally, a web of
state and county roads connects Jefferson County. State Highway 61/67 and 21 are the
primary north/south connectors. Highway 30 runs northeast/southwest through the
northwest quadrant of the county. Highways M and MM provide a major eat/west
connection from I-55 and highway 30, in the northern part of the county. The county
lacks major east/west connections south of the M-MM corridor. Narrow county roads
provide indirect access in much of the southern portion of the county. Local roads that
serve subdivisions and neighborhoods are classified as privately owned and dedicated to
public use. Thus, for these subdivisions, the homeowner’s association is responsible for
maintenance. See Figure J10 located in the back of the Technical Appendix.
The County Commission convened the Transportation Advisory Committee on September
16, 1999. The overall purpose of the TAC is to serve as the source of long-range planning
and strategies and shared local transportation policy making for Jefferson County. They will
advise the County Commission on funding, administration, and operation of publicly
supported agencies involved in the delivery of services for all modes of transportation, and
they will act as a focal point for cooperation and coordination between all stakeholders in
the delivery of transportation services.
One of the immediate tasks of the Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) was to
investigate the transportation needs of the elderly, handicapped, Welfare-to-work
population and others with special medical and job service needs. The TAC found that the
transportation needs of these segments of the Jefferson County population are not being
sufficiently met. The key issues surrounding this finding are: 1) insufficient funding for
current providers; 2) communication between service providers is limited; 3) there is no
mass transit available in the County; 4) data on needed services is not available; 5) there is
no standard on data collection; and 6) the County is not accessing all the money available
to resource transportation services. All of these issues impact the physically disabled, the
elderly, and others with medical and job service needs.
The TAC has the following short term recommendations to address these issues: 1)
contract a public transit needs study; 2) create a centralized automated information center;
3) expand dialog with mass transit providers; 4) research the availability for potential