JACKSON -- A new alternative route that would connect Highway 34-72 west of Jackson with the new Highway 74-Interstate 55 interchange in Cape Girardeau was favorably received by elected officials meeting with the Missouri Department of Transportation and St. Louis-based design consultant QST Tuesday.

The new route, which had been proposed by the Jackson Transportation Committee, heads southeast from the Highway 34-72 intersection and intersects with County Road PP and later Highway 25 before turning east at Route K.

One option, Alternative 8, continues on Route K to I-55. The other, Alternative 9, leaves Route K about halfway between Gordonville and I-55 and goes southeast to the new Highway 74 interchange with I-55.

The Jackson Board of Aldermen, Cape Girardeau City Council and Cape Girardeau County Commission all have endorsed a route similar to Alternative 9. "It weighs a lot that the city councils of two communities and the county commission have endorsed an alternative route," said Dawnrae Clark, the department's project manager.

Six other alternatives funnel traffic around Jackson and back onto Highway 34 in various ways. These so-called "tight bypasses" would move up to 30,000 vehicles per day around Jackson. Alternatives 8 and 9, on the other hand, would move only about 10,000 vehicles per day because all those would be going through to Cape Girardeau.

These numbers are based on growth projections for the year 2022, which is 25 years out from the beginning of the design work.

The tight bypasses, which range in price from $46 million to $88 million, all would require improvements to the interchange at I-55 and Highway 61, which is referred to as Center Junction.

Alternative 1, the cheapest at a projected cost of $22 million, does not create a bypass but proposes expanding the current road through Jackson into five lanes.

Jackson Mayor Paul Sander dislikes that option. "I don't think that's in the best interest of Jackson at all. You're going right down the middle of a densely populated residential area," Sander said.

In Alternative 9, Jackson has a route that avoids Kasten Clay Products and Grandview Acres and, in the eyes of city officials, could promote economic development. It also would define the city's southern boundary.

In Alternative 9, Cape Girardeau has a route that prevents those extra 10,000 cars daily from funneling into the busy interchange between Route K and I-55.

But QST engineer Ray Steege said that interchange needs upgrading "no matter what we do."

Like all the options, Alternative 9 has some disadvantages. At $82 million, the projected cost is the second highest of the nine. At 11.34 miles, the route also is the longest.

Perhaps most troublesome is the impact on natural resources and houses along Wolf Lane. A number of houses would be taken if this alternative is chosen, the consultants said.

Some of the same problems arise in the Route 25-74 location study being conducted to improve transportation between Chaffee and Cape Girardeau. The six alternatives all create a link between Highway 25 and new Highway 74.

In both studies, the engineers said, the environmental issues at Highway 74 remain unresolved.

Some elected officials have been publicly unhappy with MoDOT and QST. The last presentation in November included an option with a road going through Jackson's new elementary school.

Clark said Tuesday that the location study phase is supposed to be vague until the alternatives are pared down.

"We don't get that detailed at this stage," she said.

But Clark added that MoDOT and QST hadn't responded to the officials about their concerns soon enough. "Maybe we were not timely," she said.

However, the footwork that officials complained was absent had been done, QST spokeswoman Kathryn Meyer said. "We have engineers who have driven every road."

Local officials at the meeting included representatives of the Jackson Board of Aldermen and the Cape Girardeau County Commission, Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III and Marble Hill City Administrator Dave Jackson.

The public is invited to study the final alternatives and ask questions at an open house to be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Holiday Inn. Engineers from QST will be on hand along with representatives from MoDOT and local elected officials.

A public hearing will be held once a route is chosen. Clark said that hearing probably won't occur until fall. She said construction could begin by 2002 given the availability of funding.