LOOKING FOR A NEW APPROACH: I-55 BETWEEN SCOTT CITY AND CAPE CARRIES A LOT OF TRAFFIC

The Missouri Department of Transportation is trying to get more input from local residents in the early stages of road development.

Opinion-gathering meetings held recently in Cape Girardeau and Scott City concerning a possible new route between the two cities is an example of its new approach.

Department engineers determined in 1991, while working on another Cape Girardeau County road project, that a new road was needed between Scott City and Cape Girardeau to alleviate traffic volumes on Interstate 55. According to the highway department's 1995 counts, nearly 40,000 people traveled the short stretch of I-55 between Nash Road and the southernmost Kingshighway exit in Cape Girardeau on an average day in 1995.

"It wasn't in the past that we didn't ask people; it's just we didn't get them involved early enough in the process," said the department's district engineer at Sikeston, Scott A. Meyer. "What we said was, 'OK, we've got a couple proposals here, what do you think?'

"We have really, just over the last three or four years, begun to look at different ways to get closer to our customers and let our customers begin to define what they've needed."

Since Jan. 23, department officials have met with the public to get ideas on possible alternatives on traffic between Cape Girardeau and Scott City. Engineers didn't present their proposals but sought suggestions of those who attended.

Cape Girardeau police Sgt. J.R. Davis, who heads the department's traffic division, said the area of I-55 between the Dutchtown exit and Nash Road has the highest rate of accidents in the city. Davis said there have been 64 accidents on that stretch since 1991. That represents 8.5 percent of the total number of accidents on I-55 within the city limits since 1991.

Davis' figures indicate the problem is getting worse because 29 of those 64 accidents occurred in 1996.

That area also has the highest number of injuries per accident. Twelve injuries were reported in the 29 accidents on that stretch in 1996. Overall, since 1991, there have been 27 injuries and one death on that 1.7-mile stretch.

Most of the accidents occurred between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., which led Davis to speculate that many of the crashes came as people were going to and from work.

The department advocates trying to split some of the traffic off that stretch of road, said Davis.

"Sometimes as engineers we tend to look at point A to point B and draw a line between them," Meyer said. "A lot of times the people know the history of the region, they know some possible old rail lines that could be used, they know some cemeteries to avoid that we don't even know about.

"By not having lines on the map they really help us identify a lot of things that we don't think about," he said. "Sometimes they also show us some economic opportunities."

Angela Wilson, a public-affairs manager for the department, said the procedure has been used in other parts of the state and is just now making its way into Southeast Missouri.