NEW UNION COUNTY WILDLIFE REFUGE ENTRANCE ROAD DELAYED

WARE, Ill. -- The Route 3 entrance road to Union County Wildlife Refuge in Southern Illinois won't be opening this year.

"We talked with railroad officials recently, and it appears that it will be March before signals and gates can be ready for the railroad crossing," said Bob Zieba of the Illinois Department of Transportation office at Carbondale last week.

The refuge road, which crosses tracks of the Missouri Pacific Railroad two miles south of the Ware intersection, was closed by order of the Illinois Commerce Commission almost a decade ago following a fatal train-car accident.

The commission issued an approval for the reopening of the road, which passes Union County Wildlife Refuge headquarters, in response to a petition from the Union County Board of Commissioners and the Union County Road District.

When the project was announced in June, Union County officials felt the road would be ready by the opening of the 1992 goose season in mid-November.

"We have completed our portion of the road," said Zieba. "All that remains is for the railroad to adjust its tracks and install the signals and gate."

The refuge road improvement called for widening and upgrading the surface of the road, called the Tollgate Road, and replacement of a bridge over Running Lake Ditch, noted Zieba. "All improvements and the bridge have been completed," he said.

Funds for the new access entrance and road improvements came from a gasoline tax increase approved in 1989. Cost of development and improvements of the total project 4.01 miles of the road and the bridge inside the refuge was absorbed by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

"The county (Union) will finish the approaches to the railroad crossing," said Zieba. "But, it has to wait until the railroad completes its portion of the work."

When the ICC approved the petition to reopen the road, it agreed to pay 95 percent of the cost $105,914 of installing signals and gates for the railroad crossing.

The reopening of the refuge road would create a "substantial amount of statewide traffic into the area," say officials.

In the planning stage for the refuge is a new information and visitors' center that will be situated just east of the new crossing. During the winter months the refuge, which is home to thousands of wintering Canada geese, attracts many visitors.

A spokesman from the Union County Wildlife Refuge said he felt reopening of the road off Route 3 would increase visitors to the refuge.

"We have people from all parts of the nation visit this refuge to view the large flocks of geese," said Dick Vance earlier this year. "We'll be glad to see the road open. It opens up a southern access to the refuge for tourists."

People traveling Route 3 now have to take the Route 146 entrance in and out of the refuge, which means traveling an addition four miles to the access road, and doubling back another two to three miles to the current refuge headquarters building.

The new opening also will be attractive to people from the immediate Southeast Missouri area, including Cape Girardeau, the largest city along Interstate 55 from St. Louis to Memphis.

During the period 1984 through 1990, records show that 59,900 people visited the refuge, an average of less than 10,000 a year.

"It is projected that traffic will increase substantially and that a majority of the traffic will use the Route 3 refuge road entrance into the refuge," said Zieba.