STATE FINDS NEW WAY TO TAKE 34 BYPASS AROUND SUBDIVISIONS

State highway officials are developing a new alternative for a proposed Highway 34 bypass that would minimize impact on the Stonebridge and Briarwood Estates areas of Cape Girardeau.

DawnRae Clark, project manager for the Missouri Department of Transportation, said the state is working on rerouting the southernmost alternative, which it calls Alternative 9 or Segment T, of the proposed bypass from Jackson to Cape Girardeau.

The new proposal would run northeast of Segment T, which dips south from Route K to tie in at new Highway 74 at Interstate 55.

"We've got a preliminary concept, and we're really confident it will work," Clark said Wednesday. "We're really trying to get some details ironed out and get the same amount of data that we have on the other alternatives."

The new proposal would go through a "primarily undeveloped" area, Clark said, but homes on the edge of the roadway probably would be affected.

"There will be impacts, they just won't be as great to the homes there," she said.

Residents in the Briarwood Estates subdivision on Wolf Lane, a wooded lane off Bloomfield Road, were concerned that Alternative 9 would mean demolishing their neighborhood and several surrounding homes.

Among the houses at risk was the home of Rob and Sherry Vaandergraf. It is a Dutch colonial-style home built in 1904 by Dr. Andrew Juden.

Residents of the area have lobbied hard with city, county and MoDOT officials to have the alternative moved.

"It's not a done deal yet, but it's really, really encouraging," said Sherry Vaandergraf.

The Vaandergrafs have begun work to have their home put on the National Register of Historic Places. Theirs is among seven homes in Briarwood Estates at risk if Alternative 9 is chosen.

"I would say, with the actual neighborhood and all the people that we've contacted, at least we did make people aware of some of the options that we felt could be used," said Mark Mueller, a Briarwood Estates resident.

Mueller said it makes more sense to use open fields for the roadway than to tear down homes. "A lot of acres out here could be used," he said.

Clark said input from Briarwood Estates residents prompted MoDOT to look for a new alternative.

The Vaandergrafs' home and the old Juden estate are "of importance to the area and to history," Clark said. "We're required to minimize impacts to historic sites, and the segment would have been disruptive to the neighborhood. We're just glad that people expressed their opinions and required that of us."

MoDOT officials expect to have a preferred alternative for the bypass, which is aimed at reducing traffic congestion along Highway 34 through Jackson and Cape Girardeau, chosen by this fall. Construction of the bypass won't start before 2002.

Developing the new alternative shouldn't affect that schedule, Clark said.

"They're still doing a lot of data gathering and analysis, and with a new alternative or different alternate coming this late in the game, there's a little bit of catch-up to do," she said. "It won't put the study behind by any means, but we aren't to a preferred alternate by any means."