HIGHWAY PLANNING

Local elected officials are pleased to be guinea pigs for the Missouri Highways and Transportation Department's new process for deciding which projects to pursue and how to meet local needs.

The new process, which will be used statewide as the highway department looks at future projects, was explained to local officials last week. Cape Girardeau County was selected as a pilot project because of a process already under way that incorporates many of the ideas for local input before the highway department adopts a particular project.

In recent years, the highway department has relied on its district officials around the state to keep in touch with highway needs. Based on that information, the highway department would then establish short- and long-range plans that listed various projects to be completed as funding became available. Often these needs shifted over time, and the highway department would find itself with a plan that no longer served local needs.

Moreover, the new approach puts a great deal of stock in the impact of highway projects on businesses and residents. For example, the process of deciding how best to handle traffic along Highways 34, 72 and 25 in and around Jackson will include determining how to best serve the current and future needs of businesses and residents of that area.

The county already has made a sizable investment in this process by appointing a committee to work with an engineering firm. At some point, there will be recommendations about highway corridors and traffic flow involving those three highways. Those recommendations will become the building blocks for the highway department's planning.

This approach makes good sense. It is a credit to the highway department that it is adopting this method of planning. And it is a credit to Cape Girardeau County to be a leader in working through the process.