Turns for the better

When an engineering firm dissected Jackson's traffic problems more than a year ago, it came up with many areas of concern and many options for change.

The problems and solutions were addressed by an inch-thick binder full of information and a $100,000 bill payable to Crawford, Bunte and Brammeier, a traffic and transportation engineering firm.

The city of Jackson has tinkered with its transportation system in the last year, using the study as a guide. It has made one noticeable change: removing stop signs and adding a left-turn lane at the Shawnee, Old Cape Road and East Jackson Boulevard intersections. The change has moved traffic through the area more quickly. The city has also removed and added stop signs and changed speed limits at different spots in the city.

Soon, a left-turn lane will be added to Donna Street, an improvement that public works director Rodney Bollinger said will be similar, though smaller in scope, to the Shawnee improvement. And in the coming months, the Missouri Department of Transportation and the city will expand and improve the intersection of Farmington and Route D.

But as it stands now, Jackson has most of its dollars in two projects -- the East Main Street extension and the Highway 34-72 widening project. Jackson has $1 million budgeted for its portion of the widening project, which is relocating the utilities.

The city will spend even more than that on the East Main Street project, although how much more is uncertain. Jackson is in the process of working out easement negotiations with landowners surrounding the East Main Street corridor. The city has also been trying to organize a Transportation Development District -- a way of using tax revenue created in that district to pay for transportation projects in that district.

But the formation of the special district has been slow-going.

City administrator Jim Roach last week painted a dreary picture about easement and transportation district negotiations, but he changed his tone Tuesday after more conversations with property owners.

"We're making progress," he said. "Today, I'm optimistic."

Without a transportation district, Jackson would have to pay for half of the interchange, or $2.5 million. And construction costs to extend East Main Street, not including any right-of-way funds, will add around $1.2 million more to the cost for Jackson.

Both the Main Street extension -- dubbed in the report as the city's "top priority" -- and the West Jackson Boulevard widening project address problems noted in the study. However, the plans for those projects were in place before the study was done.

The East Main Street project, in particular, has a direct bearing on how quickly the city will be able to address other traffic situations. The more money it pumps into East Main Street, the less it will have to pay for other projects.

Two targets

In the portion of the $100,000 study that focuses on the existing traffic issues and concerns, the first two areas mentioned were West Jackson Boulevard and the uptown business district.

MoDOT will begin construction on the West Jackson Boulevard project this year, widening the boulevard from Hope Street to well outside the city limits.

The second immediate concern, the uptown district, won't be started any time soon. As it stands right now, uptown Jackson -- more specifically U.S. 61 -- is not even on the radar screen.

And there is perhaps good reason for that. MoDOT already has its hands all over Jackson with the two major projects in town. MoDOT has secured $13 million for two of the three 34-72 phases and another $2.5 million for its half of the Main Street interchange.

But Jackson public works director Rodney Bollinger said sometime this year, he hopes that uptown Jackson will indeed become a radar blip.

"I fully prepare to pursue the issue with MoDOT, to get Hope and Main and Washington, and maybe 61 north up to Fruitland on the list at SEMO Regional Planning," Bollinger said. "We want to look at the big picture. We want to get it on MoDOT's radar so we can have them get the hoops ready for us to jump through whenever the time comes."

Bollinger said the improvements are far down the line and it's too early to tell when the projects might become a reality.

"We've had some discussions, but it's at the conceptual stage," said MoDOT project development engineer Barry Horst.

The traffic study calls for a roundabout at the intersection of High and Washington, just in front of the courthouse; a left-turn lane and right-turn channel island at Hope and Washington; and a traffic signal with left-turn lanes at all four stops on Hope and Main. Hope Street from Main to Jackson Boulevard would all be three lanes.

Other long-term projects listed in the traffic study include a loop that would virtually circle the entire city.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635