AREA HIGHWAY NEEDS TOPIC OF MEETING; LEADERS HOPE CONSENSUS CAN BE FORGED ON PROJECTS IN AREA

Area civic and government leaders hope to forge a consensus of area highway needs immediate and long range prior to a Missouri Highway and Transportation Department public meeting later this month.

About 50 civic and governmental leaders from Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Scott City and Cape Girardeau County met Tuesday to discuss highway priorities for the area in light of passage of a 6-cent state gasoline tax.

The gas tax is expected to be a windfall for Southeast Missouri and a number of highway projects that formerly were on the state's 15-year "unfunded needs list."

Freeman McCullah, Missouri Highway and Transportation Department district engineer, told the group Tuesday that all the projects on the unfunded needs list will be completed with the additional tax revenue.

He said a public hearing either April 23 or 30 will be held in the area probably Marble Hill to gather information on other highway needs in the district.

"I think there are some exciting things happening in the Jackson-Cape Girardeau area that are unique to District 10 and Missouri," McCullah said.

He said that with the gas tax revenue, projects that now are slated for construction include two-lane upgrades with rights-of-way for four lanes for Highways 25, 72, and 34; a new Mississippi River bridge in Cape Girardeau and arterial bridge route connecting the span with Interstate 55; and an eastward extension of Nash Road from I-55 to the Southeast Missouri Regional Port in Scott City.

McCullah said it's important for area officials to reach a consensus on how the improvements will tie into long-range road plans.

George Hathhorn, chairman of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce Surface Transportation Committee, said the groups represented at Tuesday's meeting should determine long-range highway needs that aren't now included in highway department plans.

He said that the department is apt to scrap some highway improvements in other parts of the state as groups in those areas bicker over details of the projects.

"Anything you think is needed for the area, it's time to put those proposals on the table," Hathhorn said.

Larry Payne of the Chamber of Commerce presented a number of long-range proposals drafted by the transportation committee that could be presented to the highway department.

Payne said a priority should be development of plans to handle increased traffic volume in Jackson from the Highways 25, 72 and 34 projects. He said the plans also should facilitate traffic needs for the industrial area around Procter and Gamble north of Cape Girardeau.

"The logical thing would be a bypass or an outer belt around the Cape-Jackson area," he said. "There has been some discussion of another interchange to serve the north Cape Girardeau area around Route D."

He said the route could be linked to Highway 177 for traffic from the Procter and Gamble industrial area. Payne said the "outer belt" could encircle Jackson to the north and west, then to an eastward route to south of Jackson.

Payne said the southern part of the route could tie into Route K, then eastward to Cape Girardeau or farther south to Blomeyer, and then tied into an extension of Nash Road.

"What we are looking at is a long-term plan that is needed for traffic in this area," he said. "We would like this long-term plan to be done in the next few years so that it can be tied into those existing projects that will be done in the next few years."

The group agreed to form a committee to draft a proposal of long-range highway needs for the area to present to the highway department later this month.

The committee will include Payne, Walt Wildman of the Regional Commerce and Growth Association, Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Gene Huckstep, Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority Director Alan Maki, and Jackson Mayor Carlton Meyer.

The committee will ask that the highway department conduct a study based on traffic origin and destination surveys of long-range goals to tie in with the more immediate, funded projects.

McCullah said the group was on the right track by considering both immediate and future highway needs.

"We need to hear what we're hearing today; where you want to go and how best to get there," he said. "There needs to be a consensus voice that says to the highway and transportation department that it's important that we start studying the goals and put them into its overall plan."

Wildman said that although the proposed study would include projects that might not be done for several years, it's important to plan the routes.

Maki concurred, citing the example of the Nash Road project, which was added last year to the state's unfunded needs list after local officials lobbied the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission.

"It went from not being on the unfunded needs list to being one of the first projects that will be done" with new gas tax revenue, he said.

But Earl Norman of the RCGA cautioned against asking for projects that are unrealistic, particularly with regard to an outer belt around the Cape-Jackson area.

"It has to be a practical corridor that can be done in the next five to 10 years and can't go too far out or we'll be shooting ourselves in the foot," Norman said.