CAPE-SCOTT CITY ROAD: WORK ON ROUTE A COOPERATIVE EFFORT

The Missouri Department of Transportation is working with an engineering firm and a federal agency to speed the development of an alternate route between Scott City and Cape Girardeau.

Dawn Rae Clark Fuller, transportation department project manager, said initial studies of traffic patterns in the two cities will be coordinated through Environmental Science and Engineering Inc. and the Federal Highway Administration.

"This will help with funding," Clark Fuller said. "We don't want to get further into the study process and realize something that the Federal Highway Administration didn't endorse. This way we kind of bring them along, partner with them and ESE, and everyone's on the same page."

Environmental Science has been working in Cape Girardeau County doing location studies for projects on Routes 25, 34 and 72.

Clark Fuller said the alternate route project probably will become a separate project from the Nash Road-Interstate 55 interchange improvements it had been grouped with.

Relieving congestion on I-55 between Scott City and Cape Girardeau will be one of the top priorities the transportation department will list as it prepares a purpose and need document for the highway administration, she said.

"This will help us prioritize this project and keep our focus as we develop it."

Relieving congestion on that strip of road also will make it safer, she added. The Cape Girardeau Police Department said the portion of I-55 within the city limits south of the Dutchtown exit has the highest number of accidents in the city.

Clark Fuller said public meetings on the project that were scheduled for late summer will be moved back to the fall.

Being able to use Environmental Science's origin and destination studies will save the transportation time and money on the alternate route project, she said.

"This will save us from having to mobilize and do our own origin and destination studies."

Kathryn Meyer, public affairs manager for Environmental Science, said the traffic model from its research into the Route 25, 34 and 72 projects will be used by the transportation department as it develops the alternate route.

The traffic model shows points of highest origination of traffic and where that traffic is heading on certain routes. This will enable the transportation department to find better entry points into both cities.

Meyer said the traffic model is developed by engineers who stand out on streets stopping cars and asking the drivers questions. Drivers who do not want to sit through the list of questions are given a postcard to fill out and return. The process takes several months.

This information is fed to a computer which computes the traffic model. This can also take a few months.

"Based on where these people said they were coming from and where they were going we can predict future traffic volumes on a new roadway," Meyer said.