STATE UNVEILS PLAN TO IMPROVE I-55 EXIT AT FRUITLAND

A plan to improve the Fruitland Interstate-55 interchange in time for the opening of Procter and Gamble's plant expansion will be unveiled at a public hearing Thursday.

The Missouri Department of Transportation will conduct the hearing from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Jackson Knights of Columbus Hall.

The project calls for:

-- Widening U.S. 61 to six lanes in the vicinity of the I-55 overpass. The overpass structures will be replaced to provide the width needed for the new U.S. 61 lanes under I-55.

-- Widening U.S. 61 to five lanes from the northbound I-55 interchange ramps to the intersection of Highway 177, a distance of about one mile.

-- Installing new traffic signals at the I-55 access ramps on U.S. 61 and at the Highway 177 intersection with U.S. 61.

The $7 million project also will widen Highway 177 from the intersection with U.S. 61 to Route W. The road won't be widened to five lanes but will be wide enough to facilitate turning vehicles.

The project was prompted primarily by the P&G expansion.

"We want to expedite some of the peak traffic into P&G," said Barry Horst, project development engineer for MoDOT. "Also, traffic is growing in the area because Fruitland is growing."

Horst said the work on Highway 177 toward the plant is being done because there already are congestion problems at peak periods. He said left-turn lanes will be added at all state routes and county roads.

No presentation will be made at the public hearing, but representatives of MoDOT will be there to answer questions. Horst said public hearings are helpful both to the public and to the engineers.

"We don't want to do it in isolation. We want the public to know what's going on."

And he said landowners can provide engineers with information they were not aware of.

Gerald Jones, presiding commissioner of the Cape Girardeau County Commission, called the plan "a major improvement."

"We'll need it because traffic is going to double if not triple," he said.

Horst said the project began taking shape a year ago when P&G announced plans for an expansion along Highway 177 that will employ 350 workers at a new tissue and paper-towel plant.

The interchange improvements are to begin next summer. The roadway improvements will begin in early 2000. Both are scheduled to be complete late in 2000.

Horst said traffic will not be diverted during the construction.

He said better safety is one goal of the improvements at the interchange. "We have safety concerns because of the sight distance. When we widen to five lanes that will improve."

The bridges also will be brought up to seismic code.

MoDOT already has talked to property owners along U.S., where the right of way will have to be acquired.

Horst said the department will stay inside the existing right of way along Highway 177.

MoDOT already has relocated a milelong section of Route J to make room for the plant.

Jones praised MoDOT's work to expedite that project. "It was amazing. They relocated that road in less than six months," he said.