I-66 FEASIBILITY STUDY SHOULD BE READY FOR CONGRESS NEXT SPRING

A preliminary feasibility study for a trans-America transportation corridor commonly referred to as I-66 is moving along and should be finished by the end of the year and ready for Congress to review next spring.

The study is being coordinated by the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department and is funded by the federal government and by state highway departments along the proposed route.

Walt Wildman, who is co-director of I-66 Project, Inc., said Tuesday he is pleased with progress that has been made on the study. He explained that it should be turned over to the Federal Highway Administration by the end of the year and ready for Congress to review in March.

Since the next step in Congress would be seeking funding for a design/build study that would take several years to complete, Wildman said the group's focus right now is organizing to win approval of that funding next year.

"The sooner Congress can get this study the sooner we can seek funding for the larger study," said Wildman. "We are pushing the engineers and highway officials to get the report to Congress as soon as possible."

Funding will be sought through the Public Works and Transportation Committee in the House.

To get ready for that funding push, Wildman said groups and individuals active with I-66 Project, Inc. are prepared to reorganize and raise funds to make that push a success. In addition, the group will attempt to focus on more specific locations for the proposed route to be looked at with a broader study.

A meeting has been scheduled for Oct. 1 in Denver. Wildman says it will be similar to an initial meeting held in St. Louis in May of 1989. At that meeting the concept of an east-west interstate highway was unveiled by members of the Cape Girardeau Regional Commerce and Growth Association.

Wildman said the mayor of Wichita, Kan., where the I-66 national headquarters is located, will be sending out invitation to mayors of cities along the corridor. Invitations also will be sent to several hundred people and organizations expressing an interest in the project.

"We hope to have 75-100 people at this meeting," said Wildman. "We would like to have somebody from as many different regions as possible."

Wildman said the group has been remained low key over the last several months while the study was underway, but that now it is time to shift back into high gear.

"We hope to be able to raise enough funds to hire a consultant to prepare our presentation for Congress, and we want to include in that presentation next spring a route-specific recommendation," said Wildman.

"At this meeting our purposes are housekeeping, getting our organizational structure reaffirmed, and then agree on our goals and methods of getting to our goals."

The current study is looking at three different corridors, based on the type of highway that would be constructed. The study includes a review of high-tech options that affect where the route might be located.

The study looks at 50-mile-wide corridors, but Wildman is optimistic that agreements can be reached on corridors that are considerably smaller and can be defined in legislation next year.

In the 1991 highway appropriation bill, the cities of Bowling Green, Columbia, Somerset, London, Hazard, Jenkins and Pikeville in Kentucky are the only specifically defined areas in the highway plan. However, an amendment is being proposed by Western Kentucky Congressman Tom Barlow to add other cities in Kentucky by name, including Paducah.

Wildman said that having Paducah mentioned in the route would pretty much assure the need to run it through Southern Illinois and into Missouri at or very near Cape Girardeau.

"We need to be route-specific, because other states are trying to be," observed Wildman. "The feasibility study is cautious about where it goes, but we are not going to be cautious."

The current study, which has completed five of seven tasks, is reviewing corridors that run from Norfolk, Va., to Los Angeles. Wildman said he is concerned about having the highway end in Los Angeles, where it is already congested and air pollution is a serious problem.

Wildman anticipates the matter will be discussed at the Oct. 1 meeting.

Types of technology being looked at in the current study include: highways built to interstate standards designed to accommodate larger trucks; providing right of way for high-speed rail; advanced vehicle control systems allowing for speeds up to 150 mph; and other features that are expected to be a part of 21st century transportation.

Said Wildman: "This study is a corridor study for the 21st century. They have really taken the opportunity to study a lot of things and the sky is the limit. They are studying the potential that could happen and then we need to go back and look at reality."