Meeting on highway plan set

JACKSON, Mo. -- Officials from the Missouri Department of Transportation will meet with the public Feb. 28 to detail their plan to expand Highway 34/72 in Jackson from two lanes to four lanes and a raised median. Though MoDOT's decision last year to narrow the highway expansion from five lanes to four has drawn criticism, local officials have limited influence over improvements in a state highway.

"They say this is the type of highway they will be building all over the state from now on," says Mayor Paul Sander. "That is not debatable."

MoDOT has decided on building four-lane highways with medians instead of five-lane roads primarily for safety reasons. Engineers say parkways have 25 percent fewer collisions compared to five-lane roads with similar traffic volumes. Traffic signals at Oklahoma, Farmington, West Main, East Lane and West Lane are designed to allow traffic to flow smoothly.

At some intersections, signals will allow U-turns.

Managed access, the current traffic engineering buzzword, also has been shown to increase the size of a community's business region by getting customers to their destinations faster, engineers say.

Costs have gone up

Jeff Wachter, a transportation project designer for MoDOT, said the improvement plan is still preliminary but is at a stage where MoDOT is ready to start tying down rights of way. The cost has increased $3 million in the past year to $16 million. As the plan has become more detailed, right of way costs have gone up, accounting for one-third of the increase. Higher bridge costs -- the plan includes a new bridge over Hubble Creek -- along with higher costs for asphalt and additional retaining walls also have pushed the price up.

MoDOT officials met with the mayor and Board of Aldermen and with the Cape Girardeau County Commission last week to explain the latest version of the plan.

Sander is happy that something is about to happen to accommodate Jackson's traffic explosion.

"The council and staff have worked hard for years to get that project and the East Main Street Extension on the state highway plan," he said. "We are extremely pleased that both of those are now funded."

The plan for the 3 1/2-mile stretch between the intersection with Highway 25 west to the point where Highway 34 and Highway 72 diverge is to be completed in three phases. Purchasing of right of way for the first phase is scheduled to begin in late summer or early fall. MoDOT will begin buying 29 pieces of property, including two businesses, to make the widening possible. MoDOT officials would not identify the two businesses because the owners have not yet been contacted. A few homeowners also are still to be contacted. In some cases, MoDOT simply will buy frontage or right of way from property owners.

In all, 160 properties are involved.

MoDOT originally presented the new plan to the public last March. Changes in the design since then mean MoDOT will not need to purchase two or three properties that originally were on its list. MoDOT will need to buy four or five more properties that weren't in the original plan, Wachter said.

Offering advice

Employees from the St. Louis firm of Crawford, Bunte and Bammeier, hired last month to provide Jackson with a comprehensive plan for solving its traffic problems, were in the field Friday assessing the effects of MoDOT's plan, Sander said.

He said the city will work with MoDOT to fine-tune the plan, perhaps suggesting the addition of turn lanes where they would be helpful.

"We want it to be the best residential and commercial highway and traffic-friendly highway we can make it," he said.

The plan includes a bicycle/pedestrian trail on the north side of the road between Oklahoma Street and East Lane. Four streets that intersect that highway -- West Vale Drive, Dallas Street, Union Street and Colorado Street -- will be closed from access once the improvements have been completed. The closure of Adams Street has been deleted from the newest plan.

A separate project to be completed in conjunction with the first phase will widen and resurface Route 25 south of the Highway 25/34/72 intersection and add turn lanes at Jackson Trail. This is meant to provide an alternate route to tractor trailer trucks that in the future will have limited access to the industries south of Highway 34/72, such as Kasten Masonry.

Ken Parrett, executive director of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce, is still unhappy with MoDOT's statewide four-lane strategy.

"We would prefer to have the five lanes," Parrett said. "I want them to be able to turn into any business they want."

But widening the road will still benefit the community, he said. "No one who is losing a portion of their land is happy about it. But it's going to be better for everyone all the way around."

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182