A second Main roundabout is in the works for Jackson

The City of Jackson is preparing to build the intersection at Shawnee Boulevard and East Main Street into a roundabout, city engineer Clint Brown confirmed Friday.

The city's board of aldermen approved a $76,000 engineering services proposal at the regular board meeting Monday, according to city documents.

Cochran Engineering's new Farmington, Missouri, office will prepare the project proposal, Brown said.

That proposal will include surveying, preliminary and final designs, along with construction documents and specifications, Brown said, and also will include multiple options for placement and design.

There's a large utility pole to consider, for example, he said.

Cochran already has been out surveying, Brown said.

The design will hopefully be ready early next year, he said, but the start date is undetermined.

"We have another intersection at Oak Hill Road and Main Street -- it's out for bid as we speak," Brown said.

A lighted traffic signal will be added to that intersection.

That project and the Missouri Department of Transportation's plan to completely rebuild exit 99, or center junction, into a diverging diamond interchange, are the priority projects, Brown said.

"MoDOT set a couple of different timelines for how long (the interchange project) could take," Brown said, noting the city is essentially waiting for MoDOT to pinpoint that schedule before making moves on the proposed roundabout.

"We obviously don't want two intersections being constructed on at the same time," Brown said. "We need to see when we can squeeze this in."

Regardless, he said, "We want the plan together and pretty much ready to bid out, so we're ready to do it," Brown said.

In April 2017, a traffic study of Jackson's entire traffic flow identified a few key spots that needed to be addressed, including areas along the Main Street corridor.

As part of the study's findings, Lochmueller Group of St. Louis recommended two intersections for improvements: one, the Oak Hill Road and Main Street intersection.

The other recommendation was a lighted signal or roundabout at East Main and Shawnee, Brown said.

A preliminary cost estimate dated March 28 put the roundabout at approximately $967,000, not including rock removal.

In April 2018, the board of aldermen heard from Dominic Thompson with Smith & Co. Engineers of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, who made suggestions based on Lochmueller's findings.

In the northwest corner of the East Main and Shawnee intersection, there is parking for an apartment building.

In the southwest corner is a utility pole, which city administrator Jim Roach had said is "a major transmission line -- it's not as easy as picking it up and moving it over. It would affect the whole line for quite a distance."

Thompson had said if the entire intersection were to be shifted east, that would add more concrete to the project, and thus more expense.

And the projections of future traffic counts were based on projected buildouts, which may or may not reflect Jackson's actual growth areas between now and 2027 or beyond, Thompson had said.

But these considerations would be included in the proposal from Cochran, Brown said Friday.

Having multiple options will allow the city and designers to determine the best option for the city and the design by looking at the broader picture and weighing options, he added.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630ule