MORE OPINIONS GATHERED ON SCOTT CITY-TO-CAPE GIRARDEAU ROAD

A Missouri Department of Transportation meeting in Cape Girardeau Wednesday night didn't attract the same number of people a similar meeting did in Scott City last month.

But a wide range of community residents were on hand to give department representatives their opinions on building a highway between Cape Girardeau and Scott City.

The Rev. David Allen of St. James AME Church said he is concerned about another road fracturing a south Cape Girardeau neighborhood that already has been divided by the relocated Highway 74.

"It isolates it," Allen said of the consequences of dissecting a community. "It would be the same thing if you tied a real tight string around your finger, then left it there for six months: Your finger would fall off."

He suggested determining where the greatest concentration of traffic would be heading and building a road to intersect there.

"Projected growth is all on this part of town," he said, indicating the west side of Interstate 55. "If your projected growth is over here, and you build a highway up in here, folks are still going to get on the interstate because it will be closest to the growth."

He recommended either widening Interstate 55 to accommodate additional traffic or building a direct route from the center of Scott City, across the interstate and into the western region of Cape Girardeau.

Highway department project manager DawnRae Clark Fuller said widening I-55 is an option but it doesn't do everything the highway department requires of a project.

The route has to alleviate a congestion problem on I-55 between Cape Girardeau and Scott City. The department estimates about 15,000 vehicles travel just the five-mile section of interstate between those two cities on an average day.

The route also has to open up the intersection of I-55, Main Street and Highway 61 in Scott City. While expanding the highway might alleviate some congestion problems, it would do nothing to correct the intersection problem.

Third, the route should provide an emergency route in case I-55 were shut down due to an accident or chemical spill.

The project was first brought to transportation officials by Scott City representatives in the early 1980s after a tanker truck overturned near the Scott City exit on I-55.

Sgt. J.R. Davis, who heads the traffic division of the Cape Girardeau Police Department, would like to see an alternate route that would take some traffic off I-55.

"This part of I-55 between Nash Road and the Dutchtown exit is the No. 1 accident location in the city," Davis said. "The high volume of traffic definitely contributes."

He said that area also has the highest number of injuries per accident.

"When we have an accident on the interstate, you're dealing with an accident involving a lot higher speeds," Davis said. "Any time you have an accident with higher speeds you're going to have the potential for more injuries."

Clark Fuller said if a route is built it would be a two-lane, 35-mph road instead of a highway.