ROUTE J RELOCATION BIDS DUE MAY 23

JACKSON -- Things are moving quickly around the Procter & Gamble plant north of Cape Girardeau.

To accommodate the company's proposed $250 million expansion, the Missouri Department of Transportation plans to build a 1.1-mile road around the perimeter of the expansion area in a little more than three months.

Lynelle Luther, transportation department project manager, said at a public meeting for the road Tuesday night that this project would normally have taken three years to plan and build.

Luther said the project will go up for bid on May 23, and she expects the road open for traffic by Sept. 1 and completed later that month.

The project will cost $2.5 million, paid by a state fund for economic growth, Luther said.

She said planning for the new road began in late February.

The road is a relocation of Route J, which runs adjacent to P&G and is situated where the first of two buildings will be built. The new road will be built on land owned by P&G, Luther said, and is being donated to the project.

Luther said about 0.7 of an acre of wetlands will be destroyed because of the road and replaced on P&G land.

The part of Route J to be relocated was covered by water in the 1993 flood. Luther said the new road will be out of the flood plain and residents in the area will not be cut off in another flood.

She said the 0.9 mile of Route J to be relocated will be closed for a month just before the new route is opened. Residents of the area said the transportation department is working with them to find an alternate route for that month.

About 25 residents attended the meeting. Luther said that was a good turnout considering the small number of people affected by the road.

Evelyn Lange and her son, Harold Lange, own property near where the new road will be built. They said the fact that the road will be out of the flood plain is its only redeeming factor.

Harold Lange said the road will bring traffic closer to their rural homes.

He said he attended the meeting to learn what the transportation department's plans were and not to offer suggestions.

The Langes own 89 acres near the new site. Evelyn Lange has lived on that land since 1949.

Charles Brown, building maintenance director for P&G, said the expansion is expected to be completed by the year 2000.

In August, the company plans to dump its first loads of dirt for the construction of the first of two 28-acre buildings in the expansion. The first building will be placed where two employee parking lots are situated on either side of Route J.

Procter & Gamble employees will begin parking on the other side of the building and will enter that lot by Route 177.