Illinois I-66 planners wait on feds

Illinois highway officials say they're ready to proceed with in-house planning for a new Interstate 66 route that would carry traffic to the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge at Cape Girardeau if Congress approves the project in next year's highway appropriations bill.

Illinois highway officials and Cape Girardeau city and civic leaders want the highway bill, now being drawn up in Washington, to include specific language that would mandate such a route and prevent the highway from being built farther south across western Kentucky.

David Phelps, an assistant secretary of the Illinois Department of Transportation and a former Southern Illinois congressman, said his department is waiting on Congress to finish the highway bill.

Congress likely won't pass a new federal highway bill for five months, said highway consultant Lonnie Haefner of St. Louis.

The Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association is paying $30,000 to Haefner to lobby Congress and work with Illinois officials on behalf of a Southern Illinois route that would bring another interstate and more commerce to Cape Girardeau.

Haefner has been pushing the project in talks with U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau and U.S. Sens. Kit Bond and Jim Talent of Missouri.

Haefner and Phelps discussed the project in a telephone conference call Wednesday with Mitch Robinson, executive director of the industrial recruitment association, and a reporter.

Kentucky highway officials have looked at the possibility of an I-66 route through western Kentucky that would bypass Illinois and Cape Girardeau, and cross the Mississippi River into Missouri south of Wickliffe, Ky. Such a route would require building a new bridge across the river.

A route favored by Cape Girardeau and Southern Illinois officials and civic leaders would cross the Ohio River on the existing Interstate 24 bridge at Paducah, Ky.

Congress will have the final say, Robinson said.

Illinois had long ignored the project. But that changed with the election last year of Rod Blagojevich as the state's new governor.

Kentucky, largely through federal money, is conducting a $570,000 feasibility study of I-66. Missouri has contributed $50,000 to the study -- conducted by a Louisville, Ky., consulting firm -- which included a series of public meetings in western Kentucky and at the Missouri Department of Transportation office in Sikeston, Mo.

Illinois highway officials expressed support for a Southern Illinois highway route in June, nearly a year after the start of the feasibility study. Kentucky highway officials still haven't wrapped up the study, which initially was to have concluded this summer.

Bruce Siria, project manager for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, said he doesn't know when a decision will be made by Kentucky's top transportation officials, but hopes it will be within a month.

Missouri and Illinois highway departments have provided information as part of the feasibility study.

"The ball is in our court," Siria said. "We are not waiting on anything from Illinois or Missouri."

Kentucky's state budget shortfall may have slowed the decision making on the current feasibility study and could have an impact on the final recommended route, he said.

Robinson said the election of a new governor in Kentucky also may be delaying a final decision on the road project. Voters in Kentucky elected Republican Ernie Fletcher earlier this month, ousting Democrats from power after 32 years.

The highway planning delay may have helped supporters of an Illinois route by giving Illinois highway officials more time to gear up for a possible Southern Illinois route study, Robinson said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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