HWY. 60 ALMOST FINISHED; FESTIVITIES SET IN THREE CITIES

A four-lane Highway 60 provides a path to progress in Southeast Missouri, civic leaders say.

The improved highway will draw the region closer together and boost economic development, said chamber of commerce officials in Sikeston, Dexter and Poplar Bluff.

The four-lane highway will extend 48 miles from Sikeston to Poplar Bluff when paving is completed on the final 13-mile section of Highway 60 from Dexter to Morehouse.

Most of that section already has been completed and the contractor could finish the job next week, said Scott Meyer, district engineer for the Missouri Transportation Department in Sikeston.

"It is our goal to try to get it open before the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, which is the most traveled holiday of the year," he said.

Meyer and civic leaders in Sikeston, Dexter and Poplar Bluff hope the work is completed prior to Friday, when ceremonies are scheduled in all three cities to celebrate the improved highway.

A "Celebration Caravan" is scheduled for Friday, with numerous officials expected to participate. The caravan will travel the entire route from Poplar Bluff to Sikeston. The public also is invited to participate in the procession, Meyer said.

Opening ceremonies will be held in Poplar Bluff at 12:30 p.m.. That will be followed by a ribbon-cutting in Dexter at 1:30 p.m. on Highway 60 at the railroad bridge, where the existing four-lane pavement connects to the new section.

The ceremonies will conclude in Sikeston at 2:30 p.m. at the Highways 60-61 interchange near the Wal-Mart store.

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson will speak at the Sikeston ceremony, along with Joe Mickes, who heads the state's Transportation Department.

The four-lane highway connects with Interstate 57 at Sikeston, providing a four-lane road all the way to Illinois.

"A long, continuous four-lane route really adds to accessibility and mobility of both people and goods throughout Southeast Missouri," Meyer said. "It has been a long time coming and it is worth celebrating," said Meyer.

The $66 million improvement of Highway 60 from a rural two-lane highway to a high-speed, four-lane, divided highway was done in sections.

The first section was a five-mile stretch in the Dexter area. That section was completed in 1989.

Meyer said federal gas tax money paid 80 percent of the cost of the entire project, with state gas tax revenue providing the remaining 20 percent.

The speed limit is 65 mph on the limited-access highway.

Motorists will be able to make the 19-mile trip from Sikeston to Dexter in 15 minutes, said Janet Coleman, executive director and economic development coordinator for the Dexter Chamber of Commerce.

The 29-mile trip from Dexter to Poplar Bluff will take about 24 minutes.

Motorists will be able to travel from Sikeston to Poplar Bluff in about 40 minutes instead of what had been an hour drive.

"Any highway improvement helps any community as far as making you more accessible," Coleman said.

But chamber of commerce officials in the three largest cities along the route said the Highway 60 project involves more than economic development. First and foremost is a safer road, they said.

"We have had so many wrecks where people have lost lives along this stretch," said Coleman. "This is going to be tremendous for safety."

Dennis Hanes, president of the Poplar Bluff Chamber of Commerce, knows about the dangers of old Highway 60 all too well. A friend of his died in a head-on collision on a two-lane stretch of the highway west of Fisk. The accident occurred in early August, shortly before a stretch of the new four-lane highway in the Poplar Bluff area opened.

Hanes said that if that section had opened sooner, his friend would still be alive.

Hanes said the Poplar Bluff chamber actively lobbied for the Highway 60 improvements this year.

"We encouraged the Department of Transportation. We attended rallies. We did everything that we could, as visibly as possible, to promote this improvement," he said.

The new Highway 60 will help bring the region closer together and promote commerce between the cities, Hanes said.

But Hanes and chamber officials in Dexter and Sikeston said they still want to see the state finish widening Highway 60 from Poplar Bluff to Willow Springs. The 100-mile stretch is all that remains of two-lane Highway 60. From Willow Springs to Springfield, it is already four lanes.

Once completed, Highway 60 would be four lanes across the entire length of southern Missouri. It would help area cities capture some of the tourism dollars from bus tours to Branson.