NO NEW SCOTT CITY ROAD PLANNED

SCOTT CITY -- The Missouri Department of Transportation showed what it will and won't do to make travel easier in the area at a public hearing Monday.

Citing a cost of approximately $20 million to build a new road between Cape Girardeau and Scott City, MoDOT officials said their decision was not to build.

However, plans were unveiled showing how Main Street, also known as Route K, could be widened to add a center turn lane.

Although an additional lane could cut down significantly on rear-end collisions, city administrator Erika Glock said she was not sure yet of the project's value.

What Scott City needs most is a revamped interchange where Interstate 55 and Main Street meet, she said.

"During the busiest times of the day, between 7 and 8:30 in the morning and 3 to 6 in the evening, cars can be backed up for a mile," Glock said.

It's uncertain how long it might take before a center lane is added to Main Street, said Eric Krapf, transportation project designer. In the widening project's next stage, roadways and properties will be surveyed, and right of ways will be determined. This could take a year, he said.

Including costs of right of ways and construction, the project should be about $1 million, Krapf said.

Most of the widening would be done to the south side of Main Street, where only one private building is located. But the railways, which run south of Main Street, have not been talked to yet, Krapf said.

At this point, little is really certain, he said.

Changes in Scott City's traffic lights are certain enough that they should be a reality by week's end. MoDOT is installing looped wires beneath the pavement near traffic lights that will change the lights if a car is stopped and the intersection is clear.

Until now, lights have changed on preset intervals depending on the time of day.

"We had started with MoDOT by asking them to fix the timing on the lights," Glock said. "Instead we got loops."

The wire loops are set into holes three to five inches deep and no more than a quarter inch wide, said Jason Shafer, senior traffic studies engineer with MoDOT. They are then covered over with an epoxy, he said.

The looped wires respond to the steel in a car's undercarriage, he said.

Normally, timed lights are checked by MoDOT every two years to make sure they are set correctly, Shafer said.

Scott City is glad to have a new system for changing traffic lights, Glock said.

"People are used to running the lights because of the timing," she said.

Glock is still waiting for MoDOT to give the city a new interchange.

"The problem is you have a railway, a school and businesses already existing next to the interchange," said DawnRae Vaught. "Right now we don't know where to go."

At this point, neither does Scott city, Glock said.