Jackson to award contract to study traffic

Southeast Missourian

JACKSON, Mo. -- The city of Jackson is expected to award a $100,000 contract tonight to a St. Louis firm that will study traffic patterns in Jackson and recommend solutions to some of the problems that plague motorists in the fast-growing city.

The city has chosen Crawford, Bunte, Brammeier to conduct the study, which is expected to take eight or nine months to complete.

The city's Major Street Construction Priority Committee recommended hiring the company based on "their credentials and their plan of attack," said Alderman Larry Cunningham, the committee's chairman.

He said two of the four companies that were in the running for the project submitted bids within $1,000 of each other.

Hiring the company is the next step in a process that began when the city's Planning and Zoning Commission developed a prioritized list of 18 major street construction projects in an attempt to get the city moving toward taking some actions that will ease its traffic jams. Mayor Paul Sander appointed the Major Street Priority Committee to evaluate the list.

At the committee's first meeting last July, the members decided the city needed new thinking about its traffic problems and recommended hiring a traffic consultant.

'We're pretty excited'

This is a major step toward getting something done about a problem that has been worsening, Cunningham said. "We're pretty excited about it. ... Traffic in Jackson is terrible."

He said the company will gather information from the Missouri Department of Transportation, the SEMO Regional Planning Commission, Jackson and from its own counts before making its recommendations.

Cunningham said the city will receive periodic reports from the company, and he will recommend to the mayor that the committee remain active in an advisory status.

The Jackson Board of Aldermen also will hold a public hearing today to consider revisions to the city's Land Subdivision Regulations. Those revisions place more responsibility for inspections on developers. The city also wants to require sidewalks on collector and arterial streets. Another proposed change would give developers the option of using concrete or asphalt on any streets that are not collectors or arterials. Currently, only concrete streets are allowed.

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182