HIGHWAY COMMISSION OKs JACKSON INTERCHANGE PLAN

JACKSON, Mo. -- Plans for a long-sought East Main Street interchange with Interstate 55 have gained approval of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission.

The interchange would be built in 2006 north of the I-55 and U.S. 61 interchange between Jackson and Cape Girardeau and would be finished in 2007.

The project would open a new corridor to Jackson, improve development opportunities at the Southeast Missouri State University farm -- including opportunities for a technology park -- and ultimately provide another route into Cape Girardeau, local officials said Monday.

Highway commissioners authorized the $4.75 million project when they approved the state's five-year highway plan July 10. Survey work could begin later this year with aerial photography of the area. Engineering work could be under way by 2003.

The state would pay $2.25 million of the project cost. The city of Jackson is expected to acquire the right of way and pay half the construction cost of the interchange, Missouri Department of Transportation officials said.

Jackson Mayor Paul Sander said some of the local funding might come from the county government, the university and the city of Cape Girardeau. Still other funding could come from the federal government, he said.

Sander said the local funding will be worked out.

The important thing, he said, was getting the project on the state's construction schedule.

"We feel we have come to the end of a roadblock and opened up the future for Jackson," he said.

Seven-year effort

Jackson city officials pushed for the project for more than seven years, arguing the importance of providing another entrance and exit to the growing community.

Sander said the project would relieve some of the traffic congestion on U.S. 61 and spark residential and commercial development.

"It will make that area out there very, very attractive," said Sander. "It will help Bent Creek Golf Course and everybody in that area of town."

Jackson has extended East Main Street east to within about a mile of I-55. It plans to extend the street to connect with the interchange.

Plans are less certain on the Cape Girardeau side of the interchange, but Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III and Southeast Missouri State University officials say the interchange will spark development.

Farm possibilities

The university's foundation owns farm land at three corners of the proposed intersection, extending on both sides of I-55.

The interchange would increase the value of the land at the university farm, said Don Dickerson, president of the university Board of Regents.

Dickerson would like to see the university develop a research park on the 368-acre farm that would focus on bio-technology for agriculture. Such development is still years away, he said. Southeast has no firm plans or even any funding for a research park.

But Dickerson said the interchange unlocks development opportunities. "We have plenty of acreage to do a lot of wonderful things out there."

The interchange also could open up development of a northern east-west route for the city of Cape Girardeau. Dickerson said it could lead to development of a road across the university farm that would tie in with County Road 618, providing a connection to Perryville Road.

Spradling said Cape Girdeau could expand into the area east of I-55 and north of the city limits. The interchange could spark both residential and commercial growth in that area, he said.

But the city won't be running water and sewer lines to the area anytime soon. "You are talking probably 10 years," Spradling said.