ANOTHER MILE-AND-A-HALF SPAN OF IMPROVED ROUTE 3 TO OPEN

OLIVE BRANCH, Ill. -- There will be some detours along Route 3, north of Twente Crossing near here, within a couple of weeks, but Illinois Department of Transportation officials aren't complaining.

"We're opening another mile-and-a-half section of an `improved' Route 3," said Bob Zieba, a district engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation at Carbondale. "We haven't hooked the old highway in with the new, so people will have a small detour at each end of the section."

Richard Arnold, department resident engineer, added, "We've had good construction weather. We have about half of the project between Thebes and Twente Crossing paved. We're still on target for opening the complete 4.5-mile section by the fall of 1994. We've been high enough that the flood hasn't bothered us. Things have been moving along a good pace."

Paving of a 4.5-mile section of the highway, from Twente Crossing to Thebes, started in June, noted Arnold. E.T. Simonds Construction Co. of Carbondale was the low bidder for the major road improvement project, with a bid of $3.4 million.

"About half of the paving has been completed for the project," said Arnold. "And most of the earth work has now been completed on the north end of the project. We probably won't be doing much more paving this winter."

Most of the remaining groundwork is in the extreme northern area of the project, where it will tie into the existing highway near the Thebes intersection, said Zieba.

"Motorists will find a noticeable difference once the project is completed," said Zieba. "The existing narrow, winding and hilly highway will be a much flatter grade with fewer steep hills and sharp bends than the existing highway."

Once the new entire highway is opened next year, Zieba said the existing sections of Route 3 will be left open for residents who live along the old highway.

The current work is the final phase of a three-phase project begun in the late 1980s, replacing a total of 7.5 miles of highway that department officials say was constructed between 1932 and 1935, and has been functionally obsolete for more than 20 years.

The first two phases -- intersection and bridge work at Thebes and a 1.8-mile scenic highway along the Mississippi River from near Gale to Thebes -- were completed during the first three years of the overall project.

Plans for the third phase of work between Thebes and Twente Crossing call for a 24-foot-wide roadway and eight-foot blacktop shoulders.

"That's about double the space of the old roadway," said Zieba. Currently, the roadway has a 20-foot width and little or no shoulders in some areas.

Zieba said the daily traffic count along the 4.5-mile stretch shows that an average of 2,200 vehicles travel the road each 24-hour period.

The area between Twente Crossing and Olive Branch along Route 3 was resurfaced with new 24-foot pavement two years ago, and improvements were completed earlier along Route 3 into Cairo.

"When this section of road is completed, motorists will find an improved Illinois Route 3 all the way from Cairo to Chester," said Zieba.

Most of the highway between Thebes and Olive Branch was built between 1932 and 1935.

The narrow, curved and hilly route between Gale and Twente Crossing Road has been the scene of numerous motor vehicle accidents resulting in fatalities and serious injuries. During a 10-year period from 1978 to 1988, there were 150 motor vehicle accidents along that stretch, which resulted in six deaths, state highway statistics show. All were blamed in part on the obsolete highway, officials said.

Despite its age and condition, Route 3 is used by motorists and truckers traveling to and from Interstate 55 at Cape Girardeau and Interstate 24 at Paducah, Ky. The highway also carries a large amount of daily commuter and shopping traffic from Southern Illinois to Cape Girardeau.