INTERSECTION STILL A JACKSON TROUBLE SPOT

JACKSON -- Weekdays at 8 a.m., 5 p.m. and when school lets out, the scene at Highway 61 and Main Street resembles a Southern California traffic jam.

The intersection is one of the traffic trouble spots the growing city wants the Missouri Department of Transportation to clear up, but so far no one has been able to come up with a solution.

Mayor Paul Sander says the city has appealed to MoDOT to change the intersection many times.

"They have some restraints as far as how wide they can go. We wonder if it's possible to put in a right turn lane at each corner and a light going through it," he said. "It's certainly an option we have suggested to them."

Scott Meyer, district engineer for MoDOT, said putting signals at the intersection is a possibility if traffic warrants.

Meyer said no study of traffic at the intersection has been conducted since he has been the engineer.

"It has operated pretty safely and pretty efficiently with equal traffic coming from both directions," he said.

But Sander's concern is enough to prompt such a study, Meyer said.

"It's something that we can do."

Sander said the city has offered to participate in paying the cost of lighting or other improvements.

Meyer said the state has to evaluate the intersections alongside other state road projects that may need funding. Another governmental entity could do the work with MoDOT approval, he said.

"If someone wanted to do something we could write them a permit."

Sander said another intersection to the south at Highway 61 and Washington also causes problems. There, just north of the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse, traffic often moves in only two directions at certain times of the day.

"It's definitely an intersection people have to sit at quite awhile," Meyer said.

Southbound traffic moves unimpeded on Highway 61 and turns either left or right at the courthouse while the east-west traffic on Washington must wait at stop signs. Traffic turning right onto Highway 61 from Washington can move. But anyone turning left from Washington or going directly across the intersection has to wait for the Highway 61 traffic to clear.

Meyer said the intersection does not lend itself to signal lights and said the agency is looking for other solutions. "We would welcome any input. It's over capacity and with all the turns that makes it a difficult situation."

Meyer said Cape Girardeau County has offered some property at the intersection if needed. "I don't know how it would affect the grounds of the courthouse," he said. "Maybe it's one of those things we ought to look at.