STATE PUSHES AHEAD WITH ROAD, BRIDGE PROJECTS

New highways and a new bridge could pave the path to Cape Girardeau's future.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is in the planning stages on several highway projects in the Cape Girardeau area that could be under construction shortly after the turn of the century.

Four major highway projects are in the planning stages.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is looking at constructing a Highway 34-72 bypass to ease traffic congestion between Jackson and the new Highway 74-Interstate 55 interchange in Cape Girardeau.

Traffic congestion has become an increasing problem for the growth-minded cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

The highway department has proposed seven possible Highway 72-34 bypass routes that would take some of the traffic off a heavily congested stretch of Highway 61 in Jackson.

Two of the four-lane routes would proceed south from Jackson along Highway 25 and east along Route K to Cape Girardeau. Two other routes would include an extension of new Highway 74 to Route K, just east of the Hillcrest Manor subdivision between Cape Girardeau and Gordonville.

The other bypass routes would swing to the south of Highway 34 in Jackson and tie back into Highway 61 west of I-55.

QST Infrastructure, a St. Louis engineering firm, is studying the alternate routes and developing cost estimates, said DawnRae Clark, project manager with the transportation department's Sikeston office.

"What they are doing is checking for possible alignments, checking for possible grades, looking at the environmental and cultural impacts that would be associated with each alternative," she said.

A route should be selected by this summer, she said.

Construction wouldn't begin until 2002 at the earliest, Clark said.

The state also may construct a new four-lane highway from the Highway 74 and 25 intersection at Dutchtown to Cape Girardeau to improve safety and traffic flow. The project is in the planning stages and a preferred route could be chosen by this summer. The project could be under construction in 2002.

Two other projects are in early planning stages.

The department hopes to hire a consulting firm this summer to conduct a study for future improvements to an 85-mile stretch of Highway 34 from Jackson to Van Buren. Clark said the study likely would take two years. The state is looking at the possibility of widening and straightening the two-lane highway.

Clark said an improved Highway 34 could be a "super two" with two driving lanes and shoulders, or it could be four lanes.

No construction timetable has been set for the project, she said.

The state also is looking at developing an alternate route between Cape Girardeau and Scott City to alleviate traffic congestion on Interstate 55 and the intersection of I-55, Highway 61 and Main Street in Scott City.

About 15,000 vehicles a day travel the five-mile stretch of interstate between the two cities. The stretch of highway has a high number of accidents.

Any alternate route between the two cities would require construction of a new bridge over the Diversion Channel.

Some possibilities include extending Route N from Scott City to Nash Road to Highway 74, or following old Highway 61. The old road bed for Highway 61 is still in place.

Clark said no decisions have been made as to whether such a route would be four lanes or two lanes, or whether it would extend into the middle of Scott City or be an outer road.

Clark said no timetable has been set for the project.

Construction has been delayed on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge at Cape Girardeau. But work on the new, four-lane bridge over the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau could resume in May.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is scheduled to open bids March 20 for jet-grouting work to address a bedrock problem in the Mississippi River and construction of the Illinois approach span.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission could award contracts for the work when it meets April 3.

The $50.8 million construction contract for the main span of the bridge at Cape Girardeau was terminated in December by mutual agreement of the contractor and the Department of Transportation. The termination occurred after fissures were discovered in the bedrock where a bridge pier was to be anchored.

Before construction can resume on the cable-stay section of the bridge, the bedrock problem must be addressed, state highway officials said.