MoDOT explains Highway 34/72 widening to residents

JACKSON, Mo. -- A year after the Missouri Department of Transportation announced a change of plans for widening Highway 34/72 through Jackson, some residents remain unconvinced that four lanes are better than five.

They had the most to say to MoDOT officials Thursday at a public meeting on the project held at the Jackson Middle School. Some businessmen said the inability to make left turns along parts of the 3 1/2-mile stretch may make it impossible for them to continue doing business.

The $16 million project will widen Highway 34/72 through Jackson from two lanes to four lanes separated by a landscaped median. Signalized intersections will provide the opportunities to turn left or make a U-turn along the route.

The work will be conducted in three phases working west from the intersection Highway 25 and Highway 34/72. MoDOT officials stood before maps and aerial photos of the route to explain the project to visitors. About 125 had signed in an hour into the meeting.

Scott Meyer, district engineer, said most questions and complaints focused on changing the project from five lanes to four. "The people who are affected are mostly going to be against it," he said.

Paul Dirnberger, a partner with Jim Maurer in the Rhodes 101 stores, said the store near the Highway 25/34/72 intersection will only attract customers who are driving east when a median strip prevents westbound traffic from turning. Those westbound drivers headed home aren't liable to double back.

"It's effectively going to shut us down," Dirnberger said.

Road will be safer

Eric Krapf, MoDOT's project manager, said left-turning traffic into the Rhodes 101 backs up. He cited the MoDOT statistic that limited left turns on an arterial road such as Highway 34/72 has been shown to reduce accidents up to 25 percent and to decrease the severity of accidents that do occur. "This is the safest thing we can do," he said.

Associate Circuit Judge Gary Kamp said the Jackson Jaycees Community Center is jeopardized because so many people who use the center are out-of-towners who will be unfamiliar with the jogs necessary to find the center. When the project is completed, westbound drivers will not be able to turn left onto Dotty Lane, which leads to the center on Old Toll Road.

The center is rented for weddings, anniversaries and banquets, and the Jaycees hold dances on Saturday nights.

Kamp hopes to get area legislators involved in changing the MoDOT plan.

MoDOT will begin buying 29 pieces of property along the route later this year as the first phase of the project from the Highway 25/34/72 intersection. MoDOT also will buy right of way or frontage from another 131 owners.

Construction of the first phase is schedule for the winter of 2003-2004, with Phase 2 construction to begin the following year.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182