Damaged rest area will be converted to truck parking

The northbound Fruitland rest area that was damaged in a fire about Thanksgiving will be converted to truck parking, the Missouri Department of Transportation announced Thursday morning. But it still will offer restroom services to Interstate 55 travelers.

On Nov. 25, a fire at the rest area left the building unusable and it has remained closed since. MoDOT will open the facility Friday, primarily to serve commercial truck parking.

In a news release, MoDOT assistant district engineer Matt Seiler said the agency looked at rebuilding the rest area, but the cost to taxpayers would be more than $115,000. That didn't include yearly maintenance contracts, the release said.

"Currently, the cost to maintain the welcome centers at Marston and Hayti, as well as the dual Fruitland facilities and northbound Bloomsdale rest area, is nearly $1,400,000," Seiler said in the news release. "Because of the reduced maintenance with the conversion to truck parking, we are negotiating new rest area cleaning contracts. Any additional cost savings to Missouri taxpayers will be spent to repair roads and bridges."

Once the Fruitland facility is converted, the site will offer more than 15 parking spaces for commercial trucks and vault restrooms. Until the restrooms are complete, portable restrooms will be available.

The conversion addresses a need for more commercial park trucking, the news release said, because those vehicles account for up to 35 percent of the daily traffic on Missouri's interstates.