The Missouri Department of Transportation will hold public meetings to determine how motorists use Highway 34 between Jackson and Van Buren and where they are headed.

The first of four meetings will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Middle School cafeteria at Jackson.

The department won't make a formal presentation at the meeting. Instead, everyone who attends will be asked to complete a questionnaire on how they use Highway 34.

"Our goal for the session is to obtain information from people who use Route 34," said DawnRae Clark of the department. "We are in the infancy stages of this project and need input from individuals who live and work in the area in order to proceed."

The information will help the state determine what types of improvements are needed along the route, which is dangerous in some places.

The state is considering upgrading Highway 34 from Cape Girardeau to Van Buren.

"What we're trying to do is establish a reason for a project and what we want to accomplish through the project," Clark said.

The public input will help determine whether such issues as traffic congestion, safety or linkage with other routes are main concerns.

Clark said the state already has information on traffic volume along the 85-mile corridor. "But we don't have any turning patterns or origin and destination patterns," she said.

Later in the year, the department plans to hire a consultant to conduct an in-depth study to spell out potential future improvements along the route, which runs through Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Wayne, Reynolds and Carter counties.

"We don't know actually where the road will end up," said Clark. "It may be an improvement along the existing route or the construction of a new route altogether," Clark said.

The department is in the midst of a corridor story to determine improvements to Highway 72-34 from its intersection with Highway 25 in Jackson to the new Highway 74-Interstate 55 interchange at Cape Girardeau. Highway officials are looking for a way to ease traffic congestion along the route.

Seven potential bypass routes have been proposed. Two of the four-lane routes would head south from Jackson along Highway 25 and east along Route K to Cape Girardeau. Two others would include an extension of new Highway 74 to Route K just east of Hillcrest Manor subdivision between Cape Girardeau and Gordonville. The other routes would swing south of Highway 34 in Jackson and tie back into Highway 61 west of Interstate 55.

The Highway 34 study will take into consideration the outcome of the Highway 72-34 study, Clark said.

The state has no plans to turn the route into an interstate, as has been mentioned by those who would like to see a new interstate in the area.

HIGHWAY 34 MEETINGS

All will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Displays showing characteristics of the roadway will be displayed.

-- Wednesday, Middle School, Jackson

-- Thursday, Woodland School, Marble Hill

-- March 24, Piedmont

-- March 26, Van Buren