County counts more road costs

Facing the possibility of having to maintain lettered state routes -- such as Route K which extends west from William Street -- the Cape Girardeau County Commission took the first steps Thursday to find out how much that would cost.

The commission said it would charge county highway administrator Scott Bechtold with assessing the routes and the bridges on those roads so the county would be prepared if the financially strapped Missouri Department of Transportation acts on suggestions that were presented during a statewide commissioners meeting earlier this month.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said Kevin Keith, chief engineer with MoDOT, had talked about MoDOT subsidizing counties to maintain the lettered routes.

"It would take a fair amount of work to estimate the expenses that it would take for us to properly maintain them," Bechtold said. "The change could be done, but it would certainly be a major expansion. We'd have to plan from a different vantage point. Those roads have a lot more traffic than the ones we maintain now."

Jones said he thought it would be a good idea for Cape Girardeau County to follow the lead of Platte County, which is one of only a few counties in the state that has already assessed the possibility of having to take over lettered routes. Jones said Platte County figured it would cost $10,700 per mile each year to maintain its roads.

Jones added that he didn't think any legislation to shift the road responsibility from the state to counties would pass, but he said he wanted the county to be armed with information in case it did.

"We're going to look into doing something similar in Cape County just to find out what kind of money we're talking about," Jones said.

Jones said MoDOT has suggested paying counties $3,000 per square mile for maintenance.

County commissioners Joe Gambill and Larry Bock didn't voice any oppostion to Jones' proposal. However Bock said "all this talk about turning over lettered roads is just talk. Everybody is grasping at straws to get hold of more money."

Counting numbered roadways, county crews maintain 425 miles, said Bock, who directs the county's highway department. He said he was not certain how many miles would be added to that if lettered routes became the county's responsibility.

Keith of MoDOT was attending meetings in Washington, D.C., Thursday and could not be reached by telephone. A spokesman from MoDOT said Keith was the only state official at the state commissioners meeting held in Jefferson City, and he would be the only person who could talk about the transfer of lettered routes.

Barely keeping up

Jackson resident Teresa Meier travels Route PP, which runs south from West Jackson Bolevard, on a daily basis. She said the state can barely keep up with the maintenance.

"It has so much traffic because of the industrial area down here," she said. "It was just not built to hold up to the semi traffic. I'm very concerned with what the road is going to do, considering the fact there's going to be a new soccer field down here that they say will attract another 500 cars every weekend. Whether the county can do a better job than the state, I don't know. The county already has so many roads to maintain."

bmiller@semissiourian.com

243-6635