A busy, awkward and dangerous Jackson intersection will ultimately turn into one of the town's biggest and widest junctions.

City officials are wrapping up right-of-way negotiations near the Farmington Road and Route D intersection. The city and the Missouri Department of Transportation plan to give the area a facelift, an improvement that residents say is more than welcome.

The city hoped the intersection would have been completed this summer, but right-of-way negotiations took much longer than expected. Now the construction won't begin until at least March and as late as June.

The changes to the intersection will be dramatic. Currently, neither of the roads has any turn lanes. The new intersection will include left-turn and right-turn lanes from all directions. The intersection will be equipped to handle traffic signals.

MoDOT performed a traffic study about two years ago and found that the traffic is "significantly lower" than what is required to justify a traffic signal.

"Probably in the not-too-distant future, we'll do another count to see where we're at today," said MoDOT traffic engineer Mark Phillips. "I know that area is definitely growing."

The plans also call for a section of Route D, also called Independence Street, to be lowered 3 feet to improve visibility.

Ron Gilmore, who lives at 858 N. Farmington, at the southeast corner of the intersection, said he has lived at that location for about two years.

"There have probably been 20 accidents that I know of since I've lived here," he said. "I've seen people upside down in my ditch. Coming from the east, there is real low visibility and people drive too fast on it anyway."

There was no one at the Jackson Police Department Thursday or Friday who could say how many accidents occurred at that intersection last year.

"I think it will be a great thing," said Farmington Road resident Alex Mouser, a 16-year-old who has a driver's permit. "The cars coming over the hill are sometimes hard to see."

The plans also call for Farmington Road north of Independence street to take a new route. Currently, the road is not perpendicular to the rest of the intersection. About an acre of property had to be acquired from Dr. T. Wayne Lewis to make for a new and perpendicular approach to the intersection. The road will be moved 80 feet to the east.

The project will cost $325,000 with MoDOT to pay 80 percent and the city of Jackson to fund 20 percent.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635