The Springfield News-Leader recently published an excellent feature article about Missouri Route 66 recently earning an All-American Road designation and its possible effects.
The article contains interviews with the principals at Gay Parita Station, Route 66 Food Truck Park, Birthplace of Route 66 Festival, Rockwood Motor Court and the Route 66 Association of Missouri.
But the newspaper’s interview with Mark Falzone, president of the nonprofit Scenic America, is what really caught my attention:
His group is advocating for $325 million in taxpayer byway spending for places like Missouri Route 66 to be included in the next highway funding bill. Congress is expected to debate it in the coming months as the Biden administration also pursues a $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
Depending on what Congress approves, All-American Road funding “could pay for something as big as a visitor center to help encourage tourism, or it could pay for something as small as designing the educational literature that goes into that visitor center,” Falzone said. It could pay for other projects, like building a scenic overlook in a place where there’s a beautiful view. Anything related to the byway and its intrinsic qualities is fair game.
Tying Route 66 to an infrastructure bill makes sense on a superficial level. The Mother Road is a highway, after all.
But the secondary reason Route 66 might get serious consideration for the bill is the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously hurt tourism there. Owners of businesses and landmarks told the News-Leader that well over half of their visitors are foreign travelers — the same foreign travelers who haven’t been able to go to the United States for more than a year because of the virus.
The talk around the Beltway in Washington is Congress will decide on the contents of a big infrastructure bill by early summer.
Even without anything for Route 66 in the upcoming infrastructure bill, it still will be a good year for scenic byways and All-American Roads. Falzone said those roads in December received $16 million in federal funding after nine years of no funding at all.
(Image of a Route 66 Historic Byway sign in Missouri by Tony Hisgett via Flickr)