JACKSON -- The proposed expansion of Highway 34-72 from two lanes to five lanes will cost nearly $13 million, will use about 10 acres of farmland and will impact 21 houses, three businesses and one church.

Somewhere in all the facts and figures, Bruce Kraemer and some other people are losing their family homes.

The 40-year-old Kraemer was raised in the house at 3611 State Highway 72. He moved out and got married, then bought the house back after he got divorced.

"I was figuring on getting carried out of there on a slab," he said.

No such luck. Kraemer has known since last fall that the Missouri Department of Transportation considers his house one of those in the way of the expansion. He came to MoDOT's final public hearing on the project Tuesday at the Jackson Middle School hoping the plan might have been changed.

For DawnRae Clark, the project manager, questions like Kraemer's are the hardest to answer at hearings like this.

"What do you say? ... No amount of money can compensate for that."

The expansion will have no negative impacts on cultural or historical resources but will have other negative impacts. Besides the conversion of farmland, about 2.72 acres along Hubble Creek and a tributary could be affected.

In addition, the 342 residents and 24 businesses along the 3 1/2-mile route will be subjected to noise levels that meet or exceed noise abatement criteria for the year 2020. But more than half the current residents and almost half the businesses currently experience noise at those levels.

Clark said noise apparently is not an issue to some people who live along the route. Planting trees will ease the noise levels some, she added. But she said MoDOT must work with degrees of noise.

"Relatively, how much worse is it than none?"

Some people at the public hearing were concerned about how they will exit their driveways when traffic increases to five lanes. Clark said some situations will be improved by the expansion, some will be hurt.

"As a whole, we're trying to make the overall situation better," she said.

The project now will proceed to the design phase, with right-of-way acquisition expected in 2002 and 2003.

An hour and a half into Tuesday's hearing, about 100 people had signed the registration list. One who is happy with the proposed improvements is Earl Aufdenberg. He farms about 1,000 acres near Millersville and must drive farm equipment on the road.

He is especially happy about the proposed improvements to the intersection of Highways 34 and 72 west of Jackson.

"It will help a lot," he said.