Opponents of Highway 34/72 plan collecting signatures

JACKSON, Mo. -- At tonight's Board of Aldermen meeting, opponents of the Missouri Department of Transportation plan to widen Highway 34/72 hope to make a statement that is heard in Jefferson City.

Jackson Alderman Joe Bob Baker and 30 property owners have been collecting signatures on a petition opposing the four-lane limited access highway. Copies of the petition also were placed at some businesses that will be affected by the project.

Copies of the petition will be sent to MoDOT director Henry Hungerbeeler and the six highway commissioners, to the city of Jackson and to MoDOT district engineer Scott Meyer, Baker said. Opponents hope a crowd of like-minded people shows up at tonight's Board of Aldermen meeting.

"We're trying to convince city hall to help us more," the alderman said. "We're hoping a lot of people speak."

The Jackson Board of Aldermen recently sent MoDOT a letter supporting a five-lane road instead of four lanes. But the letter reiterated Jackson's desire to see the two-lane road widened, whether to five or four lanes.

Over a year ago, MoDOT announced it was altering its plan from a five-lane road to a four-lane limited access highway. Limited access means some streets have no outlet onto the highway, and the four lanes are separated by a median restricting left turns. Officials said MoDOT now favors these highways because they have been shown to reduce accidents by 25 percent.

'Probably my fault'

No organized opposition to the plan came out at the time. "I don't think a lot of people understood what it was," Baker said. "I didn't understand four-lane limited access."

He wishes opponents had acted earlier.

"I feel city hall probably could have stopped this a year ago," Baker said. "It's probably my fault. I didn't know how to do it. It took us some time to get organized."

Many people had an image of a center median landscaped with trees and shrubs, Baker said. "A lot of people thought it was going to be a pretty highway."

Only intersections will be landscaped. The rest of the median will be concrete.

MoDOT did receive some negative comments about the plan from the beginning, Meyer says, but not nearly as much as it's hearing now.

"It really comes down to being responsible. It's 30,000 vehicles a day versus the convenience of some properties," Meyer said. "It's a tough call, but we think safety is the most important issue."

However, he said, the state can't afford safety at any price. "The safest road would be fully controlled access. We would build interchanges, outroads and all that."

But MoDOT can build a limited access four-lane road for about the same amount as a five-lane road costs, Meyer said. "For the same price we get a whole lot of safety benefits."

Baker's business, B&B Parts and Auto Salvage Co., is on the south side of the 2 1/2-mile stretch of highway to be widened. Customers traveling west will have to go past the business and make a U-turn. But his primary personal concern is that a limited access highway will decrease the value of his property. A few years ago, Wal-Mart wanted to buy his property for its new Supercenter, but he refused to sell. The company subsequently bought land on East Jackson Boulevard.

He wonders if another company will be interested his property on a limited access highway when the time comes for him to retire and sell. He also worries the four-lane road will restrict future business development along the highway.

A Cape example

Studies show limited access highways do not decrease property values, Meyer says. He pointed to the bustling William and South Kingshighway intersection in Cape Girardeau as an example of limited access that does not hurt business.

Meyer said MoDOT has made several changes in the plan to try to reduce inconvenience as much as possible, adding mid-block turns in some instances. Its original plan offered fewer intersections and fewer chances to make U-turns.

Leo McElrath III has lived at 1231 W. Jackson Boulevard -- the city's name for Highway 34/72 -- since 1980. He dislikes MoDOT's plan. "I think it's going to be an inconvenience," he said.

The limited-access improvements mean his wife will have to drive three or four blocks past their house and make a U-turn when she returns from working in Cape Girardeau. A former Missouri highway patrolman, McElrath drives a large Snap-On Tools truck and is concerned about being able to maneuver it in U-turns and about stopping traffic to back the truck into his driveway.

"It's really going to be an aggravation," he said.

Limited access highways he has seen elsewhere all had outer roads linking intersections and providing access to private driveways, McElrath says.

He does not question that four lanes with a median will be safer than a five-lane road.

"It's just the idea that it's going to cause the people who live out here problems," he said.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182