SCOTT CITY -- For the people of Scott City who daily fight traffic on Interstate 55, a proposal for a new road connecting the city to Cape Girardeau comes as welcome news.

As a result, nearly 50 people from Scott City and the surrounding area attended Tuesday's open-house session at Scott City Hall to review 15 proposed routes for the new road.

The number was three times as many as attended a similar meeting in Cape Girardeau the night before. Both meetings were sponsored by the Missouri Department of Transportation.

According to 1995 MoDOT figures, nearly 40,000 vehicles travel the interstate between Cape Girardeau and Scott City each day. More than 20,000 vehicles use the Route M-Highway 61 interchange with I-55 at Scott City daily.

"The interstate system was not designed for city-to-city traffic but for long-distance travel," said Susan Poe, a senior highway designer for MoDOT. "The figures show the need for a new road."

Surrounded by maps and charts depicting the alternate routes, MoDOT officials answered questions and listened to the comments of the people in attendance.

The majority of comments they heard were about alleviating some of the congestion at the I-55 interchange in Scott City.

Scott City school superintendent Roger Tatum came to look at the proposed routes to see which one would best alleviate the traffic flow around the school. He, like many others in attendance, hoped that the new road would be put toward the center of town to pull traffic away from the busy interchange, which is near the school.

"My main concern is getting students home quickly and safely," Tatum said.

Presently, 29 of the school's bus routes must pass through the I-55 interchange because the school is on the west side of I-55, and most of the students live on the east side. The interchange is made even more congested by the number of high-school students who drive to school.

Les Crump, the city's fire chief, also was in favor of a route that would begin in the center rather than in the west part of town.

Currently, the city is responsible for fire protection at the industrial tract off of Nash Road as well as at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority. If there is a fire at the industrial tract, fire engines must pass through the heavily congested interchange at I-55. A route that begins in the center of town would allow the fire department to bypass the busy intersection in the event of an emergency.

Crump also said that a contributing factor to the congestion at the I-55 interchange is the number of gasoline tanker trucks that travel through the city each day from the Texas Eastern Pipeline Corp. terminal east of the city. On an average day, 208 trucks fill up at the pipeline. Although some of the trucks go to Nash Road before getting on the interstate, trucks traveling west or south generally travel through Scott City.

With the number of tanker trucks and school buses going through the interchange each day, former Scott City mayor Shirley Young sees the need for a new road as a safety issue.

"We've been lucky so far," she said.

Scott City Mayor Jerry Cummins agreed with Young, saying the situation is dangerous because presently there is only one access road out of town.

"If a gasoline truck had an accident, there would be no way out of town," Cummins said.

In addition, Young sees the possibility of a new road as something that can bring further economic growth and development to the city.

"Where there are roads there is industry, and where there is industry there are people," Young said.

The open-house sessions in Scott City and Cape Girardeau were the second stage in a six-stage location study process by MoDOT. Additional meetings will be held in late autumn or early winter. Construction is to start in 2003 at the earliest.