Residents voice concerns over Mo., Paducah connection

Residents attending a meeting Wednesday on the 66 Corridor project expressed their opinions on the location and cost of the proposed connection between Interstate 55 and Paducah, Ky., and concerns that it not harm the environment.

The public meeting at Shawnee Community College in Ullin, Ill., was the first step in collecting opinions on the placement of the road. The area being studied for the road includes Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky.

"We're getting the public's input to determine the corridor of where the future alignment will go," said Charles Stein, project engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation, which hosted the meeting.

At the meeting, individuals also had a chance to sign up to be part of a citizen advisory group, which Stein said will consist of 30 people who will represent the interests of Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky.

Stein said when conducting the study, IDOT must follow the National Environmental Policy Act, and therefore cannot predetermine where any connecting span would be placed.

The meeting showcased maps and economic and environmental information for the areas being studied, including average daily traffic, median household income by the U.S. Census, unemployment by the U.S. Census and wetland locations.

Potential areas being discussed for construction of the corridors, the beginning and end of the span, and the alignment -- the road connecting the two -- include Paducah through Union County, Ill., to Cape Girardeau; Joppa, Ill., to Metropolis, Ill., to Highway 3; and U.S. 60 to Cairo, Ill.

It will be from three to five years before the study is completed, then building can begin on a decided location, Stein said.

Finding money for the project is another task that will take time.

"There is not money to build this, because you're probably talking three, four hundred million [dollars] to build it," Stein said. "We're talking a lot of money, depending on where we go."

Thomas Meyer, chairman of the board of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, said the project should have happened long ago, as it would have had a major effect on population and economic growth of cities and towns in Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky.

He said the natural path is connecting point A to point B, and the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge in Cape Girardeau would be ideal for a connection to Interstate 57.

"You can look at a lot of factors, but it comes down to having people make a living, and they can support their economy with the taxes that they will pay because of the generated economic growth. That sums it up right there," Meyer said.

Ben and Jean Hinkle of Dongola, Ill., said they often travel to Cape Girardeau for medical reasons and to visit relatives, and they also travel to Paducah. They said their opinion on the placement of the connection is that they want to be able to travel to and from Cape Girardeau and Paducah as quickly as possible.

"They need to consider [Interstate] 57 in their planning," Jean Hinkle said. "It cuts it right in half. There isn't any way they can go around it; they got to go through it."

John and Martha Schwegman of Metropolis, both naturalists and volunteers at the Cache River Wetlands Center, hope for a plan that does not cut through the Cache River Wetlands or the Shawnee National Forest. If a span must cut through the land, they would prefer a route that takes the Illinois Highway 146 border and bypasses Anna, Ill.

"My opinion is that I do not want to see it go through," Martha Schwegman said. "I think that it will take away a lot of our natural beauty in Southern Illinois, and that is one of the major resources that we have going for us here, is our natural beauty.

"We're just really concerned about any impact on the Cache River Wetlands," John Schwegman said. "I guess we feel like Southern Illinois is being asked to -- it seems like people here at Paducah and in Cape want it, and everybody in between is paying for it. We're having the impact. We just think it would be a big disruption across one of the more wild and scenic areas."

Stein acknowledged the concerns of the placement through the Cache River Wetlands and the Shawnee National Forest.

"No matter what we do, there's going to be something we're impacting," he said.

adowning@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

8364 Shawnee College Road, Ullin, Ill.