LOOKING FOR 'OUTSIDE EYES': JACKSON SEEKS NEW SOLUTIONS TO TRAFFIC TIE-UPS

JACKSON, Mo. -- Jackson's newly appointed Major Street Construction Priority Committee will recommend hiring a consultant to evaluate the city's traffic problems and help the city plan to avoid tie-ups like those that are occurring.

The committee wants to see new thinking that does not depend on Missouri Department of Transportation traffic counts or on long-standing assumptions about how traffic should be routed through the city.

"We need some outside eyes," said Alderman Larry Cunningham, the committee chairman.

Public Works Director Jim Roach, who will become the new city administrator when Steve Wilson leaves the post on Friday, estimated a study will cost $50,000 to $100,000 and take a year to complete.

The committee met for the first time Wednesday. It is composed of Aldermen Cunningham, Phil Penzel, David Ludwig and Dave Reiminger along with Roach and Building and Planning Superintendent Rodney Bollinger. City Attorney David Beeson also attended.

The committee was appointed by Mayor Paul Sander in response to a list of 18 major street construction priorities the city's Planning and Zoning Commission compiled in the interest of getting something done about the city's traffic problems, which have grown almost chronic with the past decade of rapid growth.

"We wanted to come up with a listing to present to the Board of Aldermen so they would start looking at the street situation, so would start studying it a little closer," said Barbara Lohr, the P&Z chairwoman.

One goal of the prioritized list is to begin acquiring some rights of way so that continued growth is possible. "We wanted to start doing some things before traffic got to be such a big problem," Lohr said. "We wanted to be more proactive."

Top of the list

All but one of the recommendations for street construction are based on the city's comprehensive plan, but the P&Z Commission set its own priorities. No. 1 is completion of East Main Street from Oak Hill Road to Interstate 55. City officials view a new I-55 interchange as a crucial component of moving traffic into and out of the city, but MoDOT has not given the proposal a high priority.

No. 2 on the P&Z list is the development of South West Lane as a collector street. At the most recent Board of Aldermen meeting, a group of people turned out to oppose a proposal to begin a bypass from Highway 72/34 at West Lane and continue around the southern part of the city.

The committee voted to recommend proceeding on the design of the bypass, reasoning that the point of intersection with Highway 72/34 could still be relocated later.

Both the P&Z Commission and the committee concur that the goal of the city's major street construction is to steer traffic around Jackson as much as possible without running it right through the middle of the city. Roach said the routing ideas in the comprehensive plan are a good start, but he thinks the city needs to look for other ideas that could ease some of the current traffic congestion.

Wednesday, the committee cited three intersections near the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse -- South Hope and Main streets, North Hope and Washington streets and Washington and North High streets -- as the biggest causes of traffic slowdowns.

The problems are particularly acute during morning and evening drive times and at the end of the school day.

Courthouse bypass

One of the solutions the P&Z Commission proposes as the third-highest priority is creation of a Highway 61 bypass around the courthouse, "an attempt to create a better flow of traffic," Lohr says.

Under the proposal, Highway 61 would continue north along North Hope Street past its current left turn at Washington Street. At Florence Street, a new diagonal roadway would connect with North High Street at East Mary Street.

The bypass would require the demolition of two rental properties and removal or relocation of the American Legion Hall parking lot.

Roach cautioned that the idea is just a proposal that has been put forward for discussion.

"This idea is extremely preliminary," he said. "It's simply a recommendation from P&Z to the board."

If the Board of Aldermen authorizes a traffic study, no consideration of the proposal is likely until the study is complete.