LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: OAK RIDGE PLAN MAKES NO SENSE

To the editor:

The Missouri Department of Transportation has awarded a contract for the Oak Ridge I-55 interchange. A a civil engineer, I try to look at things with common sense and understand why. This situation is puzzling.

Highway 177 is crucial to the region because of Proctor & Gamble, Nordenia USA, various trucking operations and many other businesses and homes. There is heavy traffic on this route.

From Highway 177 at U.S. 61 there is a choice for going north or south. I would guess 90 percent of the traffic goes south toward I-55's Fruitland interchange and 10 percent goes north toward Perryville. MoDOT is widening U.S. 61 from Highway 177 to I-55 to handle the traffic flow.

To date, many tax dollars have been spend and committed to the Fruitland interchange for tearing down interstate bridges and rebuilding them to handle higher traffic flows. How do you get this traffic onto the interstate? From an engineer's standpoint you don't want more stop lights. Instead, you design a cloverleaf interchange with new off ramps so this volume of traffic won't have to stop as it approaches the interstate. I hope this is the next phase of construction.

Where does the Oak Ridge interchange come in? I have driven across the Oak Ridge overpass on workdays for over two years. I have not seen one trailer truck using this route. I have never had more than five or six cars in sight ahead of me or behind me. I work normal business hours and would say that 30 percent of the time I drive this route without seeing a vehicle between U.S. 61 and the overpass. Am I missing the boat?

MoDOT hires and employs engineers who do studies, surveys and designs. The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission is a six-member board appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate. The commission is MoDOT's governing body, and it determines what jobs will be built and where your tax dollars will be spent. I wonder what people are being served by this new Oak Ridge interchange. Perhaps I should site out there and do what civil engineers are known for: count the number of cars and ask the people if they want an interchange.

I enjoy my quiet drive home with little or no traffic to deal with except in Fruitland. Why couldn't that traffic be thinned down and the Highway 177 traffic be served simply by taking Highway 177 traffic over U.S. 61 with a bridge straight to the interstate?

MoDOT and highway commission, what people are you serving? Not Scott City. Not Jackson. Not me.

CHRIS LAYTON

Friedheim, Mo.