HIGHWAY PLAN SHOULD BYPASS ROUTE K

In determining a route to better move traffic through the Jackson area and into Cape Girardeau, the Missouri Department of Transportation would be wise to follow the Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission's suggestion that no more traffic be funneled into the already overburdened Route K-Interstate 55 interchange.

That is just what two of five options presented at a public meeting Nov. 18 would do. The other three call for improvements along existing Highway 34 through Jackson or building one of two bypasses south of Jackson. Each of those three would move traffic to the Highway 34-I-55 interchange between Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

The two options that would further congest the Route K-I-55 interchange call for building a bypass from Highway 34 west of Jackson to Highway 25 south of the city, and upgrading Highway 25 and Route K into Cape Girardeau. The Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission urged that if the state chooses to follow Route K, it build a new highway from just west of I-55 southward, tying in with the new Highway 74-I-55 interchange a short distance south of the Route K interchange.

Anyone who has ever been caught up in traffic at the Route K interchange can imagine how much worse it would be if all or a good portion of the traffic that travels Highway 34 between Cape Girardeau and Jackson were diverted to that interchange.

It wasn't long ago that there were no traffic signals at the interchange and the Route K overpass bridge was but four lanes. Because the area is rapidly developing commercially, traffic signals were installed and the bridge was widened. Those have helped move traffic, but it still is heavily congested.

Additional commercial development in the area coupled with the future opening of Notre Dame High School along Route K west of the interchange will add even more traffic.

QST Infrastructure Inc., the company that has done the corridor studies and come up with the options the transportation department will consider, has said that a new road from Route K to the new Highway 74 interchange does not address the traffic problems at Route K and I-55.

The company suggests that a new diamond interchange at Route K would help relieve congestion at Route K and I-55. But assuming the new corridor would follow Route K, that traffic still would have to pass through the busy Siemers Drive area west of I-55. And further development can be expected in that area.

If the department chooses to follow Route K as part of the Highway 34 improvement, it would be a mistake to put additional strain on an already overburdened interchange.