Highway 34/72 widening project progressing

Business Today

JACKSON -- The process of clearing out a path for a wider western highway entrance into Jackson has begun.

The Missouri Department of Transportation has successfully negotiated with several property owners along the first phase of the Highway 34/72 widening, which runs from Hope Street to Main Street. The overall project will be done in three stages and will be completed some time after 2005. It will add two more lanes from Hope Street to the point where 34 and 72 split.

Several houses have been abandoned already. Two houses have signs in the windows declaring the homes property of the state.

Eric Krapf, project manager for MoDOT, said a demolition contract will be awarded in April to tear down the buildings. That work should begin this summer, he said.

Some negotiations have gone smoothly, as MoDOT reported in a flyer distributed in January to affected residents. Others have not gone well and some have not been initiated yet.

MoDOT's controversial "limited access" grass-median approach will require motorists to drive as much as a quarter-mile out of the way, make a U-turn and drive the opposite direction to reach some destinations. MoDOT's stance is that limited access will make travel safer.