Making traffic jam

The following message is a service of the Jackson Emergency Traffic System: The Jackson Traffic Service has issued a Severe Traffic Watch for the north and northwest parts of Jackson. The watch will remain in effect for the entire month of August.

City plans are showing an east-west concrete disturbance in the Independence Street area from U.S. 61 to Broadridge Drive beginning Tuesday. That disturbance will combine with high-pressure school traffic and stationary carnival activity, making the conditions favorable for severe traffic delays.

If your commute is in the path of this construction area, seek alternative routes immediately.

When it comes to traffic situations, a super cell of unfortunate circumstances appears aimed at the county seat.

A combination of events -- a major street closure falling right in line with the start of school and the annual Homecomers celebration -- has city and school officials thinking about how to make traffic flow more smoothly.

Fronabarger Concreters of Oak Ridge has been hired to improve the Independence Street -- also known as Route D -- and Farmington Road intersection. The plans include making left-turn lanes from all four directions plus knocking down a hill, which blocks drivers' views when turning from Farmington Road.

But to do so, the street will have to be closed. The closure could last perhaps a month, but probably less than that since the city has offered a $2,000-a-day incentive for early completion. Fronabarger has at least discussed working through the night, perhaps cutting the street-closure time in half.

Regardless, the road likely will be closed at least one week during school.

Last year, traffic was particularly slow-going during the first week of school because it coincided with Homecomers, an annual festival and carnival held in the city's uptown business district. Several uptown streets are closed during the celebration. Homecomers organizers say after this year, Homecomers will be moved ahead a week to avoid conflicts with the start of school. But the organizers couldn't do it this year because they still had a contractual agreement with the carnival operators.

And to make the combustible traffic situation worse, construction will begin on the Highway 34-72 widening project on or near Aug. 9. Phil Penzel, president of Penzel Construction and also a city alderman, said there won't be any lane closures when crews begin building retaining walls and installing sections of pipe , but he's bracing for the worst.

"People will be slowing down around the construction," he said. "I tried to delay the start of it until after Labor Day, but they said no because it will affect the next contract. It'll be a problem because the natural bypass is Route D. Come the middle of August, it's going to be a mess."

Problem prevention

The city and school district have taken steps to alleviate the problem as much as possible.

The Jackson Middle School, which sits at the corner of Independence and Broadridge streets, will open 30 minutes earlier than normal so parents can drop off their children earlier and ease the traffic congestion.

The detours will be routed to Oak and Washington streets.

City police officers will direct traffic at two intersections: Oak and Farmington and North High and Washington streets. Depending on the actual traffic impact, the officers may eventually move to other locations.

Jackson public works director Rodney Bollinger said he would encourage parents to let their children ride the school buses for the first couple of weeks. However, he acknowledged that the first weeks of school are when most parents are apprehensive about their children riding the bus.

Carol Woods, transportation director with Jackson schools, has developed a new route system for the district's 52 school buses. Nine of the buses will take a route through a subdivision and out to Route FF.

"I think it will be congested," she said. But she thinks the buses will be fine. "I have good drivers and I'm confident in them, and it will work out."

Bollinger also encourages people who don't have to drive through the area to avoid the northwest side of town if at all possible.

And those who need to go from the west side of the city to the east side are encouraged to use Highway 34-72 instead of traveling through the business district, where parts of Main, High, Court, Adams, Jefferson and Barton streets will be closed off for Homecomers.

Jackson's board of aldermen likely will pass a motion that would require Adams and Jefferson streets to be open during the daytime hours when Homecomers is not in operation.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635