SIKESTON HIGHWAY WORK PLANS PROGRESSING

SIKESTON -- The Missouri Department of Transportation is exceeding its usual speed limit in completing its planned improvements to Route HH in north Sikeston.

Transportation representatives met with about 60 Sikeston and Miner residents last week to collect information about a four-step plan the department intends to complete by the end of 1998.

One of the projects is to construct an interchange from Interstate 55 to Route HH. This will include extending Route HH past the interstate about a half-mile to Sikeston's new industrial park.

Route HH will be widened and resurfaced as a part of the second project. A bridge over St. John's ditch will be replaced and about a half-mile of Route ZZ will be widened and resurfaced as the third and fourth projects.

Lynelle Luther, transportation department project manager, said the final roadway designs for all the projects will be completed by this fall.

"It's possible the interchange could be opened by the end of 1998," Luther said. Widening and resurfacing Route HH, replacement of the St. John's ditch bridge and the work on Route ZZ should be completed by the fall of 1998, she said.

Preliminary discussion on these projects first took place in December, Luther said. "It's an extremely fast-paced project," she said.

Luther estimated the total cost for all the projects should be about $8.4 million.

One reason why these projects are moving so quickly, Luther said, is because of the cooperation between the transportation department, the cities of Sikeston and Miner and Scott County.

Sikeston, Miner and Scott County will be chipping in about $540,000 toward the cost of construction. According to the agreement, Sikeston will pay half of that, Miner 30 percent and the county will contribute 20 percent.

The three governmental bodies will be paying the interest on a $3.6 million loan to the transportation department for the first three years. After that the state will pick up the cost.

"That partnership is crucial to this project," Luther said. "If we didn't have their participation in this it would normally take approximately seven years before we could come up with the money."

Sikeston City Manager Steve Borgsmiller said even though it appears this project is springing up overnight the plan for a Route HH interchange has been considered since I-55 was constructed through Southeast Missouri.

He said project coordinators from Sikeston, Miner and the county have been working with transportation department personnel for years in an attempt to get a north-Sikeston interchange. It was the commitment of Breyer's Ice Cream Good Humor Corp. that pushed the discussion into development.

Breyer's is planning to build a new facility in Sikeston's industrial park with the promise of about 180 new jobs. A refrigeration plant associated with Breyer's will add another 50 jobs when it is completed.

Borgsmiller said a tentative agreement was made before Breyer's committed between the cities, the county and the transportation department that assured each entity's cooperation in this project if a certain number of job promises was reached -- which was supplied by Breyer's.

Bill Green, director of economic development in Sikeston, said the interchange will add untold value to the industrial park. He said the park has about 400 acres of land that could be developed for industry.

There is a railroad line running through the site and Sikeston is working to extend water and sewer lines to the area.

Green said Breyer's and the refrigeration plant will take up about 60 acres. Using that size company as a measure, the park could handle about 15 more facilities, he said.

"The industrial park's ability to build out, to meet its expectations, depends upon better interstate access than what we had before we began to talk to MoDOT about this interchange," Green said.