ROUTE 146 IS HOST TO LONG LINES

EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. -- For motorists weary of sitting in long lines awaiting passage on Illinois Route 146, the Illinois Department of Transportation has good news.

The department's elevation of Route 146 by dumping more than 19,000 tons of rock on the road surface will be completed by Thursday morning, when both lanes of traffic will reopen, according to Ron Eastwood, a spokesman for the department.

Until that time, Eastwood said motorists should expect delays of up to an hour, especially just outside East Cape Girardeau.

The wait is something Bobbie Matlock of McClure, Ill., is becoming accustomed to.

"(Monday) it took us about two hours to get down Route 146," Matlock said. "Today, it only took about 45 minutes, but we started out at 6:30 a.m. -- I've got to be to work by 8 a.m. and didn't want to be late two days in a row."

A few cars back, almost in front of the Purple Crackle night club in East Cape Girardeau, Steve Matlock of McClure sat patiently in his small truck waiting passage.

"(Monday) the line was about five miles long," he said. "I waited until quarter to eight and then took a back road that I knew would get me around it.

"But the water has come up so much that my little truck won't go through it," he said. "So now I've got to wait here with everyone else."

A bit farther back in the eastbound line of traffic -- which on Monday afternoon reportedly stretched all the way back to South Sprigg Street -- Jim Hammer is back to driving his sports car home to Anna.

"It got so bad a couple of days ago that I had to borrow my father's truck," he said. "My sports car was just overwhelmed by the water.

"This is the worst I've seen it in the 15 years I've lived around here," Hammer said.

Hammer said his employer has been understanding about his being late to work in the morning because of the traffic situation on the east side of the river. But the situation is still frustrating.

"I have better things I could be doing right now," he said.

In a tractor-trailer truck hauling produce to Cleveland, Ohio, Debbie Jones sat waiting for traffic to start moving, somewhat frustrated that other truckers had not warned her of the impediment.

"I called on the radio asking if the road was clear and no one answered," Jones said. "If I had known it was going to be like this, I wouldn't have come this way.

"I mean I've got the hour to spare, but I'd rather spend it at a restaurant a lot closer to Cleveland," she said.

Jones, who will return from her trip tomorrow evening, said she will avoid this area and perhaps go all the way to Interstate 55 in Missouri before heading south back home to Benton.

"If anyone calls asking about road conditions around here, I'll sure tell them to avoid it," she said.

The flooding on the east side of the Mississippi River is caused by seepwater trapped by the levee system just west of East Cape Girardeau.

Eastwood said the higher roadway should withstand the rising waters.

"Route 146 will be completely above the water when we finish, with a couple inches to spare," he said.

After the floodwaters recede Eastwood said the department will most likely pave the elevated roadway, just as they did in 1973 -- the last time floodwaters threatened to close Route 146.

"When we're done with the road, it should look pretty much like it did before the flooding," he said. "Until then, we will periodically spread a coat of calcium chloride on the gravel to keep the dust down."