HIGHWAY IMPROVEMENTS SESSION COMING UP

Improvements on Highway 34, a heavily used two-lane highway which runs through portions of Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Wayne, Reynolds and Carter Counties, will be the topic of a special public information meeting to be held in Cape Girardeau April 21.

The session will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Holiday Inn.

"This is a very important meeting," said DawnRae Clark, project manager with the Missouri Department of Transportation's (MoDOT) district office in Sikeston.

Clark was guest speaker at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee, held at the Show Me Center, Friday. She agreed to provide an update on three road improvement projects when the scheduled speaker, Ed Gray of the Missouri Emergency Management Department in Jefferson City, had to cancel.

MoDOT staff representatives will be on hand at this month's meeting to discuss preliminary research on the planned improvement of the corridor, said Clark.

"It's the type of meeting where people can come and go," said Clark. "Officials will discuss preliminary research which has been conducted."

Other topics on the agenda:

-- Discussion of a four-lane connection between the intersection of Routes 34/72 west of Jackson to Cape Girardeau in the vicinity of Route K and new Route 74 interchanges along Interstate 55.

-- Various alternative routes involving a connection from the Routes 25/77 intersection north of Chaffee to Cape Girardeau, in the vicinity of the new Route 74/Interstate interchange.

MoDOT has already held a number of meetings concerning road projects, including sessions at Jackson, Cape Girardeau, Scott City, Marble Hill, Piedmont and Van Buren.

Two of the meetings -- Scott City and Cape Girardeau -- concerned studies of a proposal for a new road between Scott City and Cape Girardeau, which would decrease congestions at the Scott City/Interstate 55 interchange, and improve traffic flow along Main Street in Scott City and on Interstate 55.

This project is still in very preliminary stages, said Clark. The state hopes to narrow several proposed routes to one preferred route by the end of the year. But, construction is probably three to four years away on a project that could range from $15 to $20 million, depending on the route ultimately selected.