OFFICIAL `SHOCKED' BY I-66 REPORT; HIGHWAY

Don't look for an interstate to come through Marble Hill or anywhere else along the Highway 34 corridor from Cape Girardeau to Van Buren.

Missouri has no plans to put a proposed I-66 through that area, the head of the state's Department of Transportation said Thursday in Jefferson City.

Joe Mickes, the department's chief engineer, said he was "shocked" earlier this month when MoDOT's district office in Sikeston distributed a press release that suggested the state would look at the Highway 34 corridor as a possible route for an interstate.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission recently authorized the state's Transportation Department to conduct a location and environmental study for improving Highway 34. But Mickes said the study by the district office in Sikeston would focus on improving Highway 34 to a "super two" road from Cape Girardeau to Van Buren.

He said the Highway 34 study has nothing to do with talk of an I-66 project.

Mickes said the state's long-range improvement plans include improving Highway 34 as a two-lane road. "Thirty four is a very important road for us," he said.

A cost analysis by MoDOT has concluded that the most expensive I-66 route would be along the Highway 34 corridor.

The highway department has estimated it would cost $536 million to put the interstate through Missouri using the Highway 34 route.

Mickes said that route from Paducah would have to go through the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois and cross the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau. But Illinois transportation officials have said they won't push for such a highway because of the environmental problems.

"So we looked at other alternates," Mickes said.

Highway 60 offers the most likely route for an interstate from Paducah to Springfield, Mo., Mickes said.

Much of Highway 60 from Sikeston to Springfield is already four lanes and the state is working to improve the remaining sections of the road, he said.

At its Sept. 5 meeting, the Highways and Transportation Commission authorized MoDOT to study the feasibility of constructing a toll bridge across the Mississippi River at Wickliffe, Ky., as part of any plan to put an interstate through Missouri along the Highway 60 corridor.

If the toll bridge isn't feasible, then the proposed I-66 could cross the Mississippi River on the existing Interstate 57 bridge, the commission concluded.

These alternates could cost the state from $286,000 to nearly $400,000, depending on the route, Mickes said in his report to the commission.

All the studies aside, Mickes said he doesn't know if I-66 will ever be built.