66 Corridor stakeholders asked to identify needs, concerns

A span connecting Cape Girardeau and Paducah, Ky., could work in many locations, but the potential placement of the connection is boiling down to a question of north or south.

A formal study of the best corridor for the connecting highway began in March by the consulting firms Horner & Shifrin Inc. and Bernardin, Lochmueller and Associates Inc. The area being studied includes Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky.

The study will take three to five years, then building can begin, said Charles Stein, project engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation, at a public meeting in July in Ullin, Ill. The public meeting was the first step in collecting public opinions on the placement of the highway.

Potential areas being discussed for construction of the corridors, or the beginning and end of the span, and the alignment, or the road connecting the two corridors, include Paducah through Union County, Ill., to Cape Girardeau; Joppa, Ill., to Metropolis, Ill., to Highway 3; and U.S. 60 to Cairo, Ill.

Scott County Commissioner Dennis Ziegenhorn was present during a presentation by Horner & Shifrin at a recent county commission meeting. The Standard Democrat reported the firm made a presentation on a route that would connect Interstate 24 at Paducah with Interstate 55 in Missouri.

Ziegenhorn said Sikeston, Mo., is "basically being cut out" by the plans for the connection, and bringing the route farther south would bring more traffic and economic development closer to Sikeston.

The route Ziegenhorn prefers would connect Paducah to Wickliffe, Ky., which would tie into U.S. 60 or Interstate 57. He said the connection allows people to continue traveling west or head north to Cape Girardeau. If the route was built farther north, it would end at I-55, which runs north and south, leaving no option for traveling farther west, Ziegenhorn said.

If the federal government has the money for the project, he said, it should do it right and build a route that will be able to extend past the corridor.

"You just don't spend money you don't have," Ziegenhorn said. " ... It just doesn't make any sense to me. Especially the money side of it. The money's not there."

State Rep. Kathy Swan, R-Cape Girardeau, said cutting through Southern Illinois and the Shawnee National Forest to reach Cape Girardeau is the most direct route and the one she favors.

If a major artery is going to be built through the state, it makes sense bringing it through a larger metropolitan area, she said, which is a direct connection to I-55 that runs north to St. Louis or south to Memphis, Tenn.

Missouri state Sen. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, also said it seemed the most logical for Interstate 24 to hook up with I-55.

"To me, it seemed it wasn't quite flip a coin," he said. "In my mind it was a little more favorable to go north than south," he said of the corridor placement.

Wallingford's concern of damage to the Shawnee National Forest is "somewhat muted" but not ignored, he said. In his experience, the effect of similar projects on the environment was smaller than initially thought, Wallingford said. He lived in Hawaii during the development of Interstate H-3 on the island of Oahu, he said, which was halted many times during construction because of environmental complaints and legal challenges. Wallingford moved to Pennsylvania after the "Blue Route" was constructed, he said, the road taking the name of the color it was on planning maps. Construction of the Blue Route also suffered because of community and environmental opposition.

Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Charlie Herbst said if the impact study determines a connection is needed, no matter where the corridor goes, it will have a positive effect on the Bootheel.

"I would tend to favor a northern route," Herbst said.

Should a northern route for the corridor and alignment be chosen, Ziegenhorn said Scott County will make do.

"It's not going to devastate us," he said. "We'll make due as we always do."

The 66 Corridor Study continues to collect data in the first phase of the study as the Project Study Group, which consists of the transportation departments of Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky, the Federal Highway Administration and the two consulting firms, reaches out to stakeholders to identify concerns and needs for a transportation movement, according to a 66 Corridor newsletter. The group then will assemble a Community Advisory Group, which is a group of stakeholders that will provide input and response to ideas and serve to focus the views, concerns and values of the communities, the newsletter said.

The Project Study Group anticipates the first Community Advisory Group meeting to be sometime this fall.

adowning@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent addresses:

Cape Girardeau, MO

Paducah, KY