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ST. LOUIS NEWS TODAY - Sunday, April 23, 2006
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East bound I-64 near the Vandeventer Avenue overpass is restricted to two lanes through Memorial Day Weekend.
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Motorists Brace for 2006 Highway Construction Season
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), April 23, 2006 - The 2006 road construction season will be the biggest ever as the Missouri Department of Transportation works around the clock to make roads smoother and safer.
April 3-9 is National Work Zone Awareness Week and traditionally the start of the construction season. However, this year, several projects started early in March so some construction could be finished ahead of the Memorial Day weekend.
"We're doing everything we can to let motorists know ahead of time where they'll encounter construction zones and how they can get through them safely with minimum frustration or avoid them entirely," said Don Hillis, director of System Management. "While these improvements will increase delays for now, safer roads and a smoother driving surface will be a long-term benefit."
In his State of the State Address, Gov. Matt Blunt challenged MoDOT to finish its Smooth Roads Initiative projects by the end of 2006, and MoDOT is working to deliver. The initiative will bring the most heavily traveled 2,200 miles of Missouri highways up to good condition. All these improvements mean that MoDOT will have thousands of work zones statewide this year, many of them on major interstates and highways."
Twenty-seven projects are scheduled on Interstate 44 in 2006, four of which are considered major and all of which will require some lane closures. Seventeen projects are scheduled on Interstate 70, most of which will involve resurfacing or installing median guard cable."
More work zones mean more delays, frustrations and opportunities for drivers to be distracted, making work zones dangerous places, Hillis said. MoDOT is working to minimize drivers' frustrations by making special efforts to let motorists know what's happening on their roads through billboards and radio advertisements. In addition, a statewide construction map and corridor construction maps for I-44 and I-70 are being distributed statewide and can also be found on MoDOT's Web site at http://www.modot.org/workzones/WorkZoneAdvisory.htm
"We're working day and night to make roads smoother and safer," Hillis said. "We ask that motorists be patient with us as we improve their roads, and remember to always buckle up and Drive Smart."
Countrywide Marks 10th Year as National Sponsor
of Rebuilding Together
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), April 23, 2006 - Countrywide Financial Corporation and Countrywide employees are celebrating their tenth year of volunteer service and financial support to Rebuilding Together and its efforts to rehabilitate low-income homes and communities across America.
Countrywide began its affiliation with Rebuilding Together with volunteers working on home rehab projects in four communities in April 1997. This year, the company and its employees are committed to working on more than 150 projects in over 100 communities nationwide. Up to 1,500 Countrywide employees are anticipated to participate in at least one Rebuilding Together project this year. Over the first nine years, they have donated more than 7,000 volunteer workdays to local Rebuilding Together activities in every region of the country.
"Through Rebuilding Together, as our core philanthropy, Countrywide is able to extend its founding mission of promoting homeownership to the preservation of safe, comfortable, secure and accessible homeownership for those in need," said Stanford L. Kurland, president and chief operating officer of CFC. "As Countrywide has rapidly grown into the nation's leading mortgage lender and a provider of diverse financial services over the last 10 years, our corporate and volunteer commitment to Rebuilding Together has developed, as well. We recognize the value of the work done by Rebuilding Together to keep people in their homes and improve communities, and our employees enjoy a sense of fulfillment from the experience of helping homeowners remain in place."
More than half of Countrywide's Rebuilding Together projects in 2006 will take place on Saturday, April 29, the non-profit organizations annual National Rebuild Day. (The workday in St. Louis will take place May 6.) That's the biggest single day of work in Rebuilding Together's year-round effort aimed at rehabilitating the homes of nearly 9,000 low-income elderly, disabled and families with children, as well as non-profit facilities serving low-income communities. More than 240 Rebuilding Together affiliates across the country plan to rally more than a quarter million volunteers to complete the needed work, which is estimated by the charity to have a market value approaching $100 million.
In addition to supporting both Rebuilding Together's national office and more than 150 local projects in communities where its employees are providing volunteer labor, Countrywide recently helped the organization initiate two new efforts with a pair of special grants of up to $1 million each. Countrywide is the founding sponsor of Serving Those Who Serve(SM), providing home modifications for severely injured veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Through its Rebuilding with Countrywide initiative in the Gulf Coast region, the company is providing the lead funding for Rebuild 1,000!, Rebuilding Together's effort to repair 1,000 low-income homes damaged in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
"We were very excited when Countrywide became a national sponsor of Rebuilding Together with a $100,000 contribution in 1997, and could only have dreamed that the relationship would develop into the many-faceted, multi-million-dollar program of support that it has become in 2006," said Patricia Riley Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Rebuilding Together. "Countrywide's financial contributions, the volunteer efforts of its employees across the country, and their constant focus on homeownership and community development have proven invaluable to the growth and success of Rebuilding Together."
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