DIRECT ACCESS TO NASH ROAD WOULD SERVE SCOTT CITY WELL

It is no secret that highway access to Scott City is limited and inadequate. Most people enter and exit this city of 4,300 from the Route AB interchange with Interstate 55.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is planning an information-gathering hearing on Thursday to seek input on an alternate route between Scott City and Cape Girardeau. People now travel between the two cities by way of Interstate 55.

City and county officials have long worried that an accident at that interchange could cut off the city. These concerns led to the installation of traffic signals near the interchange. While the lights expedited traffic flow, the bottleneck remains.

Highway department counts place the east-west traffic underneath the interchange around 15,000 vehicles per day. When vehicles on the interchange are included, the daily traffic counts rise in excess of 23,000. That includes a considerable number of trucks and school buses. The Scott City elementary and secondary schools are located just to the west of the interchange.

This traffic problem may become all the more critical if a gambling boat application before the Missouri Gaming Commission is approved.

While a new route between Scott City and Cape Girardeau is an option, it would be an expensive one. It would probably include at least one bridge over the Diversion Channel. In these days of tight finances for the Missouri Department of Transportation, it certainly would take a long time to secure funding.

Perhaps the highway department should first consider providing Scott City better access to the extension of Nash Road. The $10.5 million, four-mile extension of Nash Road will give trucks a direct route to the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority from Interstate 55. The final contract will be let for the Nash Road contract next Friday, and completion of the entire project is scheduled for August.

Direct access from Scott City to Nash Road would give residents another route out of town. It would alleviate some of the congestion at the Route AB interchange, and it could be accomplished in a quicker time frame than construction of a new major roadway between Scott City and Cape Girardeau.