Proposed route from Cape to I-57 or I-24 stalls

A proposed east-west highway linking Cape Girardeau to Interstate 57 in Southern Illinois remains in limbo, a local civic leader said Thursday.

Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce president John Mehner said the federal government had earmarked money to conduct a study for the proposed Shawnee Parkway route. The federal assistance required the state of Illinois to kick in some funding too, Mehner said.

But the approximately $5 million study was placed on hold at least in part because of Illinois' state budget woes, Mehner said.

"It has been basically on hold for almost two years," Mehner said.

The proposed highway would stretch from Illinois Highway 3 and Route 146 just east of the Cape Girardeau river bridge to I-57. The route would run through Alexander, Pulaski and Union counties in Illinois.

After Donald Trump was elected president, it was anticipated a major transportation initiative would be developed that could have provided more federal funding for road projects, including the Shawnee Parkway project, Mehner said.

Members of Congress, including 8th District congressman Jason Smith of Missouri, expressed excitement over the prospect of major funding to improve the nation's transportation system. But the political initiative never got off the ground, Mehner said.

Still, he said, the Shawnee Parkway remains a "high priority" project with the Federal Highway Administration. The federal dollars earmarked for a Shawnee Parkway study can't be spent on anything else, he said.

At this point, it is up to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to decide whether to move ahead with the study, Mehner said.

Phone calls to the Illinois Department of Transportation's district office in Southern Illinois for comment were not returned by late Thursday afternoon.

An east-west highway would benefit Cape Girardeau's economy, Mehner said.

Cape Girardeau is served by Interstate 55, a north-south route. "That helps us tremendously," he said. But there is no major east-west highway access, Mehner said.

The Shawnee Parkway project grew out of a more extensive, Interstate 66 transportation plan.

Efforts to build a cross-country I-66 through the region date back more than two decades. A 1994 transportation study envisioned an interstate running from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles.

Local city and civic leaders pushed for a new I-66 to provide an east-west connection. But the envisioned, coast-to-coast national route never became a reality.

Federal transportation officials pulled the plug on the project in summer 2015 after the state of Kentucky withdrew its support for the project, The Associated Press said.

In fall 2015, the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration unveiled plans for Shawnee Parkway. The short route would have skirted portions of the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois.

Environmentalists have long objected to putting any highway through the national forest or the surrounding habitat.

But local and regional city and civic leaders in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois as recently as two years ago welcomed the project's economic development potential.

"Without an adequate east-west roadway, there is limited opportunity for economic development and access to jobs, adequate health care and educational opportunities in the area," according to an online project summary cited by The Associated Press in a 2016 article published in the Southeast Missourian.

Mehner said Cape Girardeau would benefit from a direct highway connection to I-57, but would see an even greater benefit if the route were extended eastward to Interstate 24. The latter would provide an easier and shorter connection to Paducah, Kentucky, he said.

"Getting to I-24 is where we need to be," Mehner said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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