HIGHWAY 34 ONLY NEEDS TARGETED UPGRADES

The Missouri Department of Transportation is approaching the possible upgrade of Highway 34 across the region with the logic that a major overhaul of the 85-mile stretch between Jackson and Piedmont isn't really necessary. We agree.

While significant improvements to portions of Highway 34 in and around Jackson, Marble Hill and Piedmont would be welcome to help carry local traffic, the time isn't right for the state to bear the expense of a major straightening and widening of the highway from Jackson to its western ending point at U.S. 60 near Van Buren.

MoDOT has contracted with a St. Louis engineering firm to examine what improvements are needed to Highway 34. Surveys show that two lanes will more than handle the amount of traffic expected to use the road in the next 20 years, and probably much longer.

Between 10,000 and 13,000 vehicles a day travel through Piedmont in Wayne County and the Highway 72 intersection near Jackson in Cape Girardeau County. Traffic volume is between 10,000 and 11,000 vehicles daily in Marble Hill. But Highway 34 traffic volumes fall drastically between Marble Hill and its crossing at Highway 67 near Silva. Along that stretch, which is absent of towns, daily volume in many areas is fewer than 600 vehicles, hardly enough to warrant a major upgrade. Furthermore, the recent traffic surveys indicated that no more than 500 motorists a day would divert from U.S. 60, the mostly four-lane east-west highway from Sikeston to Van Buren, if Highway 34 were improved all the way between Jackson and Van Buren.

Why should they? People traveling from Cape Girardeau County and from points northward near Interstate 55 can drive the interstate with ease to Sikeston and catch improved U.S. 60 westward. Even if Highway 34 were upgraded, it is doubtful those motorists would save much time, if any, by using Highway 34 to travel to south-central and southwestern Missouri.

As part of the possible improvement of Highway 34, MoDOT initially had considered some kind of a new route to connect Highway 34 to I-55 at Cape Girardeau. It since has ruled out such a project for now, realizing it isn't necessary with the five-lane Highway 34 through Jackson to the interstate. The improvements to Highway 34 on the west side of Jackson also will make travel through Jackson much safer and easier.

After additional hearings and further study, MoDOT should find that a major upgrading of Highway 34 simply isn't justified. Instead, the department would do well to carry out improvements around Marble Hill, Piedmont and Jackson, where traffic justifies the expense.