MoDOT opposes left turn by school

The Missouri Department of Transportation has added a new wrinkle to the Highway 34-72 widening project in Jackson.

On the suggestion of the Jackson schools, MoDOT plans to extend a median to block left turns from Missouri Street onto Highway 34-72 near the high school.

School officials asked for left turns to be eliminated due to safety concerns. High school students and bus drivers making left turns must cross four lanes near the busy intersection of West Jackson Boulevard and Hope Street.

Eli Landgraf, a junior at the high school, said he has seen "a lot of people come really close up there." He added that most of the safety problems are due to traffic merging from four lanes to two -- not because of a difficult left turn.

There were no accidents reported last year involving left turns onto or from Missouri Street. Still, the concern and disagreement over the intersection remain.

"I think it will be a good thing for safety, but I think it's going to make people mad," said Phillip Wichern, a Jackson High School student.

The Jackson Board of Aldermen discussed the issue at length at a study session Monday night. Although the consensus of the board was that left turns should be allowed and that MoDOT's plans should remain intact as promised, the board agreed with city attorney Tom Ludwig that the city is boxed into a corner. The board does not want to take a stand against a median extension on the highway or a right-turn-only island on Missouri Street since MoDOT and the school are citing safety concerns.

The board told public works director Rodney Bollinger to inform MoDOT that it would offer neither support nor opposition to the idea. Bollinger said he suggested that MoDOT take a wait-and-see approach to determine traffic patterns after the improvements are made.

Board members offered several reasons to oppose the median extension. Alderman David Reiminger said forcing right turns-only would funnel after-school and athletic-event traffic back into congestion.

There will be places along the improvement where the median is broken up, and motorists will be able to turn around and head the other direction.

"After school, I think those turn-arounds will be filled because everybody will be wanting to turn around," said high school student Jamie Dunlap.

Others say high school traffic that would normally have turned left onto the highway will instead be routed back through the uptown area, which has its own traffic problems.

Reiminger also said truck drivers who park their rigs in a city gravel parking lot off Missouri Street would be forced to travel 3 miles in the opposite direction in order to turn around.

Alderwoman Barbara Lohr doesn't like the change because MoDOT officials promised the board it would make no more modifications to the plans, particularly regarding the Highway 34-72 median, which property owners already have hotly debated.

Reiminger argued that the left turn would become safer after the improvements are completed because a new stoplight will be put in at nearby Oklahoma Street, creating more breaks in traffic to make left turns.

MoDOT officials were not available for comment Thursday. Thursday was Abraham Lincoln's birthday, a holiday recognized by the state government.

bmiller@semissourian.com

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