Off the beaten paths

The Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority is a rugged place.

Eighteen-wheelers hum, dump and rumble to the eclectic rhythm of agriculture, industry and transportation.

The men who operate the trucks or help load and unload raw materials are blue-jean guys who wear steel-toed boots, ballcaps and three-day beards.

But even out here, where the barges from the muddy river shake hands with the trains and the trucks, the men behind the machines sometimes like things smooth, clean and quiet.

To that end, the truck drivers and port companies will be happy with a proposed extension of Route AB that will provide a smooth ride west from the port all the way to Highway 25 through Blomeyer.

On Thursday, the Missouri Department of Transportation is giving people a chance to weigh in on the proposed project, roughly estimated at $4.6 million. The open house will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

The Route AB extension is at least five years in the making, said Cape Girardeau County Commissioner Larry Bock, who served on several boards that have a hand in the project, including the area's industrial recruitment board.

"Of course the port brings in a lot of grain and wood products from the west and southwest, so we were talking about a better route to the port," Bock said.

According to Dan Overbey, director of the port authority, "We were already talking about the missing line almost before the ribbon was cut on the new AB."

The new AB was finished in 1997, providing a direct link from the port to Interstate 55. Before that, truckers used a maze of county roads to find the port.

Bock, Overbey and other proponents say the extension will knock out several problems at once.

The new route, they say, will:

provide a better route for commerce.

reduce traffic on other east-west routes like Highway 74 at Dutchtown.

reduce the number of grain trucks exiting on and off Interstate 55. Farmers in grain trucks from areas like Advance and Puxico will have a direct route to the port, which will keep the slow vehicles off the fast-paced I-55. That, many say, will increase safety.

eliminate the 18-wheelers and through-traffic on the county's gravel roads.

"Well, it will help our business as far as transportation going west," said Lanny Koch, manager of Girardeau Stevedores, which handles salt and fertilizer at the port. He worries somewhat about what effect the increased traffic on Route AB will have at the Interstate 55 junction. He thinks a stoplight might need to be added.

"But, yeah, we'd like to see it go through," Koch said. "It'll make it a lot easier to go straight across there instead of going on 74."

But the project isn't without its glitches.

Some residents in the area are reportedly concerned about the closure of County Road 220, which will be ended at the railroad crossing.

Koch, who lives out in the area, said the closure will cut off transportation for his neighbors who farm the land.

"I don't think that's right," he said, "for the farmers who own farms on both sides. They'll have to drive all the way around to get to the other side of their farm."

Andy Meyer, an engineer with the Missouri Department of Transportation, said that decision had to be made to meet the railroad's requests.

"We're basically relocating a crossing and they did not wish to add one," he said. "We're pretty much at the railroad's mercy in that situation."

Some residents along County Road 220 are happy that their road will be closed off.

"The good thing about it is there won't be any semis on this road flying by," said Marilyn Trankle, who rents a house on the county road. "But I see the pros and cons."

To Paul M. Griffin, the lack of traffic will mean less dust.

"I have an allergy problem, and when the wind blows through here and all the trucks go through here one after another, it gets pretty dusty," he said. He also said the trucks create potholes faster than road crews can fix them.

The project will be broken into two parts. The county will purchase the right of way and build a gravel base for the road. This portion of the project will cost roughly $2 million.

Once the county has built the base, MoDOT will follow with the paving and the construction of the intersection. That will cost about $2.6 million.

Construction could begin as soon as spring 2006.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635