OFFICIALS CONCERNED BY ROUTE K DELAYS

State highway officials have expressed concern over the delay in the start of a privately-financed Route K realignment and widening project.

The section to be improved is from the Interstate-55 overpass westward to the westernmost entrance to Wal-Mart Supercenter. The bulk of the project will be financed by Wal-Mart; Drury Development Corp. will pay a small percentage of the cost.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the project will begin in July or August.

Trey Baker of Wal-Mart's public relations department in Bentonville, Ark., said: "The Sam's Club construction project is now out for bids. We expect to award a contract for the construction of Sam's by the end of this month.

"The Route K project is included in the Sam's building project. Once the contract has been signed, details will be worked out as to when the actual work on Route K will begin," said Baker.

The Route K work will be done in conjunction with paving of the asphalt parking lot for the Sam's Club. The store will be constructed just south of the Wal-Mart Supercenter, in the Cape West Industrial Park.

The widening is designed to relieve traffic congestion that has resulted on Route K with the opening of Wal-Mart last year. Plans call for Route K to be widened to accommodate a left-turn lane for traffic turning into the Wal-Mart lot. In addition, traffic signals will be installed at the intersection of the westernmost entrance to Wal-Mart.

When the project is finished, the state will conduct traffic surveys, and, if warranted, install signals at Route K and Siemers Drive.

District 10 Highway Engineer Freeman McCullah said plans for the widening were approved by the department at the beginning of the year. "We're ready to issue permits for the work as soon as they're ready to start," said McCullah.

Because the project is privately financed, the department has no way of knowing when the work will begin, said McCullah. He said the department is starting to feel the heat from unhappy motorists. He said people mistakenly believe the department is dragging its feet on the project.

Said McCullah: "The state has no control over when the work will begin. The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department is not holding up the project; it is now under the direction and control of Wal-Mart and the Drury Development Corp.

"We had hoped they would have started by now. I realize the weather hasn't been good until now, but with the weather the way it is now it's an ideal time to get started. Our office has received a lot of inquiries as to when the work will begin."

Dennis Vollink, president of Drury Development, said his firm has no say as to when the project begins.

"When the agreement was signed for the sale of the property to Wal-Mart, Drury Development agreed to pay a small percentage of the overall cost of the Route K widening project, said Vollink. "Since Wal-Mart is providing the bulk of the money for the project, they wanted to have their own engineers draw up the plans and specifications and hire a contractor to do the work. Once we sold the property to Wal-Mart, and signed the agreement with the state and Wal-Mart, it was out of our hands."

Vollink said that according to Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., the work will be done at the same time the Wal-Mart contractor paves the Sam's Club parking lot. "As far as I know, no date has been set for either the Sam's parking lot or the Route K project," he said.

Vollink said Drury Development is also interested in having the Route K project completed as soon as possible because the firm has several frontage lots ready to be developed as soon as the widening is finished

"It's been nearly one year," he said. "We struggled through the heavy Christmas traffic congestion out there, and now more congestion is on the way with the addition of Sam's and Lowes, and still nothing has been done. Right now its just a hodge-podge of cars and vehicles trying to get in and out of Wal-Mart and other vehicles trying to get by all the congestion."

Vollink said the project was scheduled to begin last year but was postponed because the end of the asphalt-paving season was too close. In addition, Vollink said some changes were made to the plans for the widening project during the winter, which were approved early this year by the state.