MoDOT to host public meeting on center junction interchange project

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) will hold a public meeting Tuesday to discuss plans to replace Interstate 55 bridges over U.S. 61 between Cape Girardeau and Jackson and construct a diverging diamond interchange.

Such an interchange would shift traffic patterns to eliminate left-hand turns, increasing safety, state highway officials said.

The open-house-format meeting will be from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau.

MoDOT area engineer Brian Okenfuss said the agency has held several discussions with Jackson and Cape Girardeau city leaders regarding the project.

Okenfuss said the meeting will provide an opportunity for the public to learn more about the project and offer their input.

The project would eliminate the grassy median at center junction, state highway officials said.

Construction on the approximately $10 million project is expected to begin in the summer of 2019 and be completed by spring 2021, MoDOT officials said in a news release.

Highway officials have said the project is needed because the Interstate 55 northbound and southbound bridge decks are in poor shape.

The 600-foot spans date to the opening of Interstate 55 in Cape Girardeau, according to highway officials. Southeast Missourian records show the spans are about 50 years old.

By reconfiguring the interchange, the new bridges will each span about 200 feet and cost less to build, MoDOT officials said.

Diverging diamond interchanges allow motorists to make left turns without crossing in front of oncoming traffic, project manager Jason Williams said in the news release.

Williams said such interchanges �work well in heavily trafficked areas.�

He said center junction carries about 23,000 vehicles a day. A diverging diamond interchange will provide �a great solution to meet the area�s growing demands,� he said.

During construction, the I-55 bridges will be replaced one at a time to allow one lane of interstate traffic to flow in each direction, MoDOT officials said.

MoDOT does not plan to close U.S. 61 to traffic, but construction work will frequently require traffic to be reduced to one lane in each direction, the news release stated.

�We understand construction will involve some short-term inconvenience for motorists, but in the long term, this project will provided needed improvements in both safety and congestion,� Williams said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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