In addition to recycling, MoDOT also has strong conservation programs, including:

• Under the Trees for Tomorrow program, MoDOT and its partner, the Missouri Department of Conservation, are providing half a million trees a year to youth groups throughout the state through 2012. The program helps replace trees taken down during highway construction.

• Using LEDs in traffic signals saves about $1.2 million in utility costs each year.

• MoDOT avoided impacting 12 historic resources on projects in 2007. When designing projects MoDOT keeps sensitive species and habitats in mind. In 2007, 15 projects were completed using measures to ensure the safety of nine protected species.

• MoDOT replaced wetlands at a rate of three acres to one on projects built in 2007. The agency also helps clean up hazardous waste sites encountered when building highways.

•  To conserve energy and paper, MoDOT has begun providing project plans via the Internet, a move that will save about $200,000 a year.

• When planting grass seed at construction sites, MoDOT often sprays a green material made from recycled paper to hold down the straw keeping the grass seed in place.

•  When reconstruction of a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 64 in the heart of St.Louis is completed in 2010, 325,000 tons of concrete and asphalt will be recycled and reused in the new highway.

• When the Route 19 Missouri River Bridge near Hermann was taken down in spring 2008, about 2,000 tons of steel from the structure was recycled.

• When kcICON - a project that will improve Interstates 29/35 in Kansas City - is complete in July 2011, more than 36,000 tons of material will be recycled, including 6,000 tons of the existing Paseo Bridge. In addition, each LED light on the new Christopher S. Bond Bridge that will be erected as part of the project will last for about 50,000 hours.

Trial Initiatives

MoDOT is testing soy-based paint to see how it works for highway striping. The department is also using an anti-icing product made from sugar beets to help keep roads clear and cut down on the amount of salt use

Artist rendering of completed Christopher S. Bond Bridge