MoDOT sets hearings on altering Highway 72

Highway 72 between Patton and Fredericktown is like the famous sculpture Venus de Milo -- plenty of curves and some shoulder problems.

But while millions across the globe marvel at the armless and partially nude statue, the twists and narrow body of the Southeast Missouri highway makes some car passengers vomit.

The Missouri Department of Transportation will hold a pair of public meetings this week to hear concerns about the 37-mile stretch of rural highway that many say is dangerous.

MoDOT officials say the department has plans to widen the driving lanes from 11 feet to 12 feet and add 6-foot shoulders. The plans also call for two 80-year-old bridges to be replaced.

However, the plans include little straightening.

"We only have plans to straighten at Castor River, where we'll put in a new bridge," said Jeff Wachter, project designer. "Any other straightening will depend on input from our public meetings."

Two meetings have been scheduled. The first will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Meadow Heights school cafeteria. The other will be at the same time on Thursday at the Madison County Senior Center at 107 Spruce St. in Fredericktown.

The project is the first phase of a bigger plan to widen 72 from Fredericktown to the Highway 34 junction near Jackson.

Construction on the first phase could begin as early as 2005 or 2006 and could take about three years to complete.

Wachter and other MoDOT officials, like project manager Tim Richmond, will likely hear from residents who would rather have a straighter highway than a wider one.

"Straightening is what they need to do most," said Darold Mills, who lives a few miles west of Patton and drives to Jackson for work and to Fredericktown for church. "It's curvy, curvy, curvy. It's just dangerous. There is hardly any place to pass and you can come up on anything and it's right there before you know it because you can't see around the curves."

As with all state road projects, the Highway 72 improvements are limited by scarce funds.

"There are knowns and some unknowns regarding this project," said Richmond, the project manager. What is known: The needs far outweigh the funds the state has to address them, he said.

Like Mills, Phyllis Femcl, the controller of the Southeast Missouri Transit Service, wants to see a straighter 72. The SMTS is located on 72 in Fredericktown, and it makes about 10 trips per day to Cape Girardeau carrying about three people per trip. Most travelers are seniors.

"Straightening would be wonderful," Femcl said. "There are terrible curves the first 18 miles to Cape. Widening would help, but if we can just find a way to straighten out some of those curves, I'd take that over the width."

Femcl said the transit service often shuttles elderly to and from radiation or chemotherapy treatments.

"The road just aggravates the nausea problem," she said. "The discomfort on the extreme curves is high for some of our regular customers."

She added that when she brought her husband back from a recent stint in the hospital, she had to stop several times, on a road without shoulders, because he got car sick.

At Patton junction

One particular area that MoDOT will focus on is what is known as Patton junction, the intersection of highways 72 and 51. Richmond said the intersection has a high accident rate and MoDOT plans to reconstruct part of 72, correcting the grade of the road so motorists stopped on 51 can see oncoming traffic.

"They put up 45 mile-per-hour signs and that helped," Mills said. "But there have been so many accidents there. It's got to be one of the most dangerous intersections I know of."

Richmond said MoDOT will use the public opinions to formulate more detailed plans and perhaps hold another meeting later in the year.

"We're just utilizing public input to determine the scope of the project," Mills said. "It's not going to be a magical facelift that could turn your grandma into a super model. There will still be plenty of hills and curves, but if the public says there's a particular stretch that needs to be looked at, we'll take a look at it."

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635