MODOT EXPLAINS PLANS TO WIDEN HIGHWAY 34-72

JACKSON, Mo. -- In 1998, the Missouri Department of Transportation notified the owners of 21 houses, three businesses and a church that they would be affected by a plan to expand a 3 1/2-mile stretch of Highway 34 and 72 in Jackson from two to five lanes. Some were to lose part of their land, some their houses.

Two of those property owners, Jaunita Lowes and Jerry Dockins, were among those who came to the public meeting at the Jackson Middle School Thursday night to learn more about MoDOT's new plan.

Announced in February, the project would expand the roadway from two to four lanes instead of five, with a landscaped median in the middle. The new plan spares some houses that were to be taken and takes some houses that were to be spared.

Both Dockins and Lowes were among a number of people at the meeting who sounded frustrated.

"I still don't know if they're going to take my house," Dockins said. "I'd like to know so I can start building another one."

Lowes is hopeful of a reprieve from moving away.

"When you've lived in a place 50 years, you've got a lot to think about," she said.

MoDOT expects to be able to provide these details when preliminary plans for the project are completed late in the summer.

Nearly 100 people had come to the cafeteria to look at maps of the plans within the first hour the meeting was open.

Plan altered for safety

MoDOT officials say they changed the plan to improve safety and reduce congestion on the heavily traveled corridor.

Mac Finley, a senior traffic specialist with MoDOT in Jefferson City, Mo., says 25 percent fewer crashes occur on parkways than on five-lane highways with the same traffic volume.

Scott Meyer, MoDOT's district engineer, said, "My primary concern is safety."

The placement of synchronized traffic lights every one-fourth mile is designed to keep vehicles flowing along the road.

In the first phase of the project, signals are to be added at East Lane, West Main, Farmington and Oklahoma streets, with the existing traffic lights at West Lane to be upgraded. U-turns would be possible where these streets intersect with Highway 34 and 72.

The plan calls for closing a number of streets that access the highway, including Colorado, Union, Dallas, Adams and West Vale Drive. People who live on those streets would have to drive a bit further to get home.

Jackson officials have expressed concerns about whether emergency vehicles -- wide-turning fire trucks in particular -- would be able to turn south off the highway.

The $13 million cost of the project has not been altered by the change in plans.

MoDOT expects to widen the road in phases, with the acquisition of right of way for phase one scheduled to begin next year and construction to begin in the winter of 2003.

The first phase would stretch from the Highway 25 intersection west to West Lane. The entire project extends from the Highway 25 intersection to the point where Highway 34 turns west at Starlight.