MAKING JACKSON MORE ACCESSIBLE

JACKSON -- About one-third of the planned 300-plus curb cuts to be made on East Jackson Boulevard and along Highway 61 north of the intersection with Highways 34 and 25 have been completed.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is making the cuts, which are mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act and are designed to provide access to people in wheelchairs.

The cuts are being placed at every side road or entrance onto the roadway from about the 3200 block of E. Jackson Boulevard west and on through town along Highway 61 North.

Making the cuts requires removing the concrete curb to the level of the entrance, then pouring concrete back from the entrance at a slight grade. Red dye is being added to the concrete to make the cuts stand out.

The $136,272 project began last fall and is scheduled to be completed by June. The contractor is Central Missouri Paving Co. Inc. of Poplar Bluff.

Rick Lamb, a senior construction inspector at the MoDot Jackson office, said the contractor has been working on the undertaking on and off through the winter while doing other projects. "They've been picking warm, dry days," he said.

The company has concentrated on the north side of the route so far and now is working on the south side, Lamb said.

Each four-way intersection will have accesses, with two cuts at each entrance. In addition, cuts are being made at existing driveways that are not tapered enough for wheelchair access.

Miki Gudermuth, executive director of the SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence, says the curb cuts will benefit many people, not just those in wheelchairs.

"Elderly people would use the curb cuts and women with strollers." They also will be helpful to people who are visually impaired, she said.

The curb cuts along E. Jackson Boulevard and Highway 61 are a state project, not involving any participation by the City of Jackson.

Gudermuth says the effort is long overdue. The deadline for compliance with the federal ADA requirements was 1993, but state and local governments generally have been allowed to wait until other renovations are undertaken.

"They have tried not to make it a hardship," she said.

Making the streets and sidewalks accessible to everyone whether they can walk or not is a moral obligation and a community obligation, Gudermuth says.

"I'm a taxpayer. I deserve to go on the streets I'm paying for ... There's a right there."

Gudermuth said her organization is aware of the costs involved and is anxious to work with both government and business toward the goal of improved accessibility.

"I want fairness for everybody. I can see both ends of the stick."

Barry Horst, a project development engineer in the MoDot Sikeston office, said the project was the first of its kind in the 14-county district, but more will follow. More urbanized areas like Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Poplar Bluff and Sikeston have priority for the projects, Horst said.

Jackson received the first project because it had a number of cuts to be made in close proximity.

The most likely street to be assigned the first curb-cut project in Cape Girardeau is Kingshighway, Horst said.