MoDOT likely to shut down U.S. 61 for 7 months for overpass project; Jackson leaders object

Despite objections of city officials, chamber representatives and members of the business community, it appears the Missouri Department of Transportation will close Highway 61 between Cape Girardeau and Jackson for about seven months next year, forcing about 20,000 motorists a day to find alternate routes to their destinations.

The matter was discussed in detail Monday night at the Jackson Board of Aldermen meeting. The subject also was addressed that night at the Cape Girardeau City Council meeting.

Both governing bodies expressed reservations about the highway closure that would be part of a two-year project to replace the bridges at the Interstate 55 interchange with Highway 61. The interchange is commonly referred to as “center junction.”

MoDOT district engineer Mark Shelton outlined the project for the Jackson aldermen and explained closing Highway 61 at the Interstate became a viable alternative to leaving one lane of traffic open during the bridge replacement when bids for the project came in higher than expected in May.

MoDOT received four bids for the project ranging from $18.4 million to $20.1 million, all substantially higher than the project’s budget. Shelton said by closing the highway at center junction, the project can be done more economically and on a shorter time frame.

“Yes, we’re talking about a closure of somewhere in the neighborhood of seven months,” Shelton told the aldermen, “but the project as it was before was going to reduce the highway to one lane so it wasn’t going to be a picnic, and the one-lane condition was going to last a year and a half, so we’ll have a closure to traffic, but also a reduction of time.”

Shelton said MoDOT plans to rebid the project this fall. “We’ll open bids in November, but you won’t see any kind of construction until the spring,” said Shelton, who added that work would begin around April 1, 2020, with the closure of Highway 61 at I-55 while one of the interstate bridges is replaced. Meanwhile, Highway 61 would be redesigned using a “divergent diamond” traffic flow concept which, Shelton said, will improve traffic flow and will be much safer than the existing four-lane highway under I-55.

Under MoDOT’s proposed timeline, Highway 61 would be reopened to traffic on or about Nov. 1, 2020. By that time, traffic on I-55 would have access to one new bridge and one old bridge that would be replaced during the 2021 construction season.

Once completed in the fall of 2021, the new interstate bridges will be wide enough to accommodate an additional lane of traffic, making it possible in the future to make both northbound and southbound I-55 three lanes between Scott City and Fruitland.

While Highway 61 is closed in 2020, Shelton said traffic will still have access to the I-55 entrance and exit ramps at Center Junction. Northbound traffic on Highway 61 from Cape Girardeau will be able to access northbound I-55 and southbound traffic on 61 from Jackson will still have access to southbound I-55.

In addition, southbound traffic on the interstate will continue to use Exit 99 to reach Jackson via East Jackson Boulevard while interstate traffic from the south will still be able to exit at Center Junction and head south toward Cape Girardeau via North Kingshighway.

“I think we have the opportunity now to let bid the project with this closure of through traffic for about seven months,” Shelton said. “We can save the taxpayers probably between two and three million dollars, and we can build the right infrastructure at the right time before everything (surrounding Center Junction) is already built up, and it can be a signature entrance for both the City of Cape Girardeau and the City of Jackson.”

Alternate routes

However, Jackson Mayor Dwain Hahs and several aldermen said closing the highway could hurt Jackson businesses and will add more traffic to alternate routes, which they say are congested enough already.

“How do you evaluate the economic loss to the businesses we have here during those seven months?” Hahs asked.

The closure would add thousands of vehicles every day to the East Main Street/LaSalle Street exit to the north and Cape Girardeau’s Route K exit to the south as well as Highway 25 connecting Route K near Gordonville with Highway 61 in Jackson. The detoured traffic would include as many as 500 trucks a day from the Central Sand Company traveling between Jackson and the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority in Scott County.

“I live on 25, and I know what the traffic is there now and there are certain times you’ll sit at a stop sign five minutes before you get an actual break,” Jackson alderman David Hitt said. If you take those extra 20,000 vehicles and split them up between LaSalle and Highway 25, including 500 sand trucks going through there, it’s going to be a nightmare.”

Shelton said MoDOT would try to accommodate detoured traffic at the interchange of I-55 and Route K by adding a third left turn lane from the southbound exit ramp onto eastbound Route K and would adjust signal timing to handle additional traffic flow. In addition, he said MoDOT would monitor Highway 25 traffic — and specifically the traffic flow at the intersection of Route K and Highway 25 — and might possibly add traffic controls to expedite traffic.

Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce president Brian Gerau and Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce President John Mehner both addressed the Jackson aldermen to express their opposition to the highway closure and encouraged MoDOT to consider alternative solutions to keep at least one lane of traffic open along Highway 61.

“With the loss of accessibility, the economic impact is immeasurable,” Gerau said. “I know we are concerned with saving the state money and we are worried about contractors, but we really need to worry about our businesses that are going to be affected. We have hotels, we have restaurants, we have car dealerships, we have distributorships. We really need to have serious consideration about that.”

Gerau and others also said the closure will not only pose an economic hardship on area businesses and traffic congestion on alternate routes, but it will also be a potential health and safety threat. “Consideration needs to be given to emergency, ambulance, police and fire situations,” he said. “I would hate to prohibit them (emergency personnel) getting to us and us getting to them because of a project like this.”

Gerau offered a letter to the aldermen suggesting MoDOT consider alternatives to the closure such as keeping the highway open during peak drive times. Mehner said the Cape Girardeau chamber and Cape Girardeau MAGNET will likely submit similar letters in the near future.

Jackson resident Rob Stevens recently opened a business along East Jackson Boulevard and said half of his business comes from Cape Girardeau and said that if Highway 61 is closed “half of our business will be eliminated.”

Meanwhile, at the Cape Girardeau City Council meeting, Mayor Bob Fox said he and other council members “really disagree” with the proposed closure and has written a letter to MoDOT in opposition to the plan.

“We implore you to consider the significant negative economic impact closing Route 61 will have on the communities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson, their residents, businesses and visitors,” Fox wrote in his letter. “Both communities will be unnecessarily burdened and inconvenienced by the proposed closure.”

Cape Girardeau City Manager Scott Meyer, a former MoDOT engineer, was more pragmatic about MoDOT’s plan, saying it was not unreasonable. “We knew there could be some temporary closures,” he said.

Following his meeting with the Jackson aldermen, Shelton told the Missourian MoDOT will consider alternatives to keep Highway 61 open while the interstate bridges are replaced and Center Junction is redesigned.

“We absolutely realize people’s traffic patterns will change,” he said. “It’s hard to anticipate exactly what people will do and exactly which route they will take, but we want to do our best to anticipate and be prepared.”

Overall, though, Shelton said he believes the seven-month closure of Highway 61 will be worth it in the long run.

“We certainly understand that closure will have effects on people and businesses,” he said. “But I absolutely believe this is the best solution. Sometimes to move forward with positive things we just have to endure some short-term inconvenience in order to move forward for a long-term benefit.”