ROAD PLANS QUESTIONED; MODOT RECONSIDERATION SOUGHT

After passing a joint resolution Monday reaffirming their support for three key highway projects, Cape Girardeau County's three largest government bodies next plan to ask the Missouri Department of Transportation to reconsider its priorities for highway construction within the county.

The Cape Girardeau City Council, the Jackson Board of Aldermen and the Cape Girardeau County Commission unanimously passed identical resolutions that offer a different vision of the county's immediate transportation needs than MoDOT's.

Last month MoDOT presented a list of 13 priority projects that included none of the three projects deemed most important by the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson and the county.

The joint resolution expresses their mutual support for the following three projects:

-- The Interstate 55 interchange at the planned intersection of the East Main Street extension in Jackson and a planned northern arterial route connecting to Highway 177 in Cape Girardeau.

-- A connecting link between Route K and the Highway 74 and I-55 interchange in Cape Girardeau. The link would be a segment of a planned development of a new Route 34-72 corridor from west of Jackson to Cape Girardeau.

-- Reconstruction of the Center Junction interchange to include moving the north lanes of Highway 61 closer to the south lanes.

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III said the three entities will submit the joint resolutions to MoDOT "and ask that they reconsider the situation regarding at least Highway 74 and East Main Street."

The resolution also will be submitted to the county's state representatives and senator.

In its Transportation Improvement Study presented to Cape Girardeau, Jackson and county officials Sept. 22, MoDOT included none of the three projects on its list of priorities, which did include widening Highway 72 to five lanes west of Jackson.

In a statement released Monday, Jackson Mayor Paul W. Sander said while the city is not opposed to upgrading Highway 72 West, "We feel Jackson and Cape County deserve more than only a Highway 72 West upgrade in the immediate future."

The joint resolution states that MoDOT "failed to utilize the input that had been received not only from both cities and the County Commission but also from local citizens and citizen groups."

County Commissioner Larry Bock said the commission also supports a number of other highway projects on the MoDOT list. "But these three projects are the ones all three entities agree upon," Bock said. "Hopefully, something will happen before long. This resolution is a place to start from and go forward."

Sander said the cities and county continue to work with MoDOT in a cooperative manner.

"We can only suggest to MoDOT and the Missouri Highway Commission what we'd like to have done," he said, pointing out that the state has the last word.

Sander said it's unrealistic for the cities and county to expect to get all the key projects undertaken in the next year or two or even five, but they need the state to provide a timetable "so we can plan for our future."

Last week MoDOT District Engineer Scott Meyer said all the entities are looking at other ways to accomplish their goals.

"We will try to figure out ways to make this happen sooner rather than later," he said.