Lily Tomlin once said, "The road to success is always under construction." The same can be said for Missouri’s roads — and for MoDOT’s efforts to improve its roadwork efforts.

Now that we have the great news that Missouri has "sharply improved" road quality during the past few years, it seems prescient that our newest policy analyst, David Stokes, recently wrote an article (reprinted by Missouri Political News Service) praising MoDOT for its innovative efforts to streamline its construction projects — pursuing public-private partnerships, using the "design-build" model, etc.

Competition, economies of scale, and real pricing mechanisms all make the economy more efficient — and when these principles are brought to bear in the public sector, they can make government services more valuable while saving taxpayers a bundle. Let’s hope MoDOT’s road-care policies will always remain "under construction."