AREA HIGHWAY HEAD GOING TO ST. LOUIS

SIKESTON -- When Freeman McCullah was transferred to Sikeston in August 1991 by the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department, he expected to end his career as Southeast District engineer.

But the recent promotion of Joe Mickes to chief engineer triggered a series of promotions that will send McCullah to St. Louis as the Metro District engineer.

"I certainly had aspirations to retire here, but I'm an old highway employee and I go anywhere they ask me," said McCullah, who will assume his new duties Dec. 1.

"I have enjoyed a good relationship with people here. It was nice to be in an area and be able to work with people where we both have shared mutual goals," said McCullah.

He will be replaced by Jim Murray, a 34-year employee of the highway department. Since 1991, he has served as assistant district engineer of design in the St. Louis Metro District.

Passage of a fuel-tax increase and implementation of a 15-year highway plan provided a combination of planning and funding that enabled the highway department to build partnerships with local communities.

"As I look back on it, with the opportunities here, I felt good about the fact we were able to do business the way we should have been doing it for years," he said. "Instead of us telling communities what is best, we are working with them to see what is best and working as partners. The additional money provides the opportunity to put in to practice the new thinking that we have in the department.

The 15-year plan turned out to be a boon for Southeast Missouri, as the state adopted a philosophy of planning to eventually connect every city of 5,000 or more and all lakes by four-lane highways.

That concept enabled Southeast Missouri to get more projects included in the plan than it had anticipated, and will create economic opportunities in the region.

Early next year, Environmental-Science-Engineering of St. Louis will begin location studies in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson areas for Highways 25, 34 and 72. The highways will be studied together over the next 18 months and a route plan will be finalized so that development projects can be planned around the highways.

"As soon as those studies are done, we will immediately follow up and have location studies for the rural parts of the routes to Van Buren, Fredericktown, Dexter and on south."

A consultant will be hired later this month to plan the location for Route 412 from Hayti to south of Kennett and on into Arkansas.

Work is also proceeding on Highway 60. Expansion of four lanes between Poplar Bluff and Sikeston will be done in 1997, and location studies are under way for the route from Poplar Bluff to Van Buren.

In Cape Girardeau, a route to the Mississippi River bridge is under construction, with funding still being sought for the bridge itself.

During McCullah's tenure, funding was also secured for an extension of Nash Road eastward into the Southeast Missouri Regional Port.

Improving access to ports will enable the highway department to participate in all aspects of transportation and complement the new road network to ship products from the rich Bootheel agricultural lands, he explained.

"I think we are entering into an era of regionalism," said McCullah.

With better highways, McCullah said, for example, that people in Marble Hill could benefit from a plant in the Cape Girardeau-Jackson area because they will have a good road leading to it. As Highway 34 is developed, McCullah said it would be feasible for someone to live in Piedmont and work in Cape Girardeau.

"When you visualize what all this will mean to the area down the road, it feels good to have been a part of it," said McCullah.

Before going to Sikeston, McCullah was assistant engineer in the St. Louis Metro District.

One of the biggest changes he will encounter in St. Louis is having to deal with a new section of the federal highway bill, which has different programs for urban areas. He also will have to contend with the federal Clean Air Act.

McCullah has been with the highway department since 1954.

Twenty-two years of his career were in Springfield on two separate occasions. He also held positions in Kansas City and at the main office in Jefferson City. In 1965 and 1966 he worked overseas for Mangla Dam Contractors in West Pakistan.