MODOT UPDATES NEW I-55 INTERCHANGE PLAN

BENTON -- Missouri Department of Transportation officials were at the Scott County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon to update residents about transportation projects in the county.

The meeting -- the fourth of its kind in the six counties of the Bootheel -- allowed MoDOT and representatives from the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission fill residents in on the status of current transportation projects.

Leon Steinbruek, executive director of the planning commission, said the priorities of the transportation department have changed because of economic developments in the region.

Steinbrueck and Steve Duke, transportation planning coordinator for MoDOT, both pointed to the construction of a new interstate interchange that has moved up on the priority list in Scott County due to economic development in the area.

The diamond interchange will be between the Benton and Sikeston exits on I-55, where Route HH currently crosses over the interstate. MoDOT plans to solicit bids for the project in September.

The bid will be awarded and notice to proceed will be given by the first of the year on the project, Duke said. Engineers estimate that the project will take a little over a year, or two construction seasons, to complete. The interchange should be completed by mid-2000.

Steinbruek said the new interchange will allow for easier access to the industrial development that is beginning to take place north of Sikeston in the Business and Technology Park.

In June, Good Humor-Breyers opened a 200,000-square-foot plant in the park that initially employed 150 people. When fully operational, the plant will have 350 employees.

Currently, people coming to the plant off the interstate must either take the Benton exit and travel south on Highway 61 or take the Sikeston exit and travel north. The new interchange will allow easier access to the plant for its employees and for truck traffic coming to and from the plant.

"Industry wants to be near an interstate," Steinbruek said of the reason for constructing the new interchange.

Two other projects were discussed at Tuesday's meeting.

Duke said that the widening of the bridge and the improvement of the ramps for the interchange at I-55 and Nash Road should be completed by 2001.

He also said that a location study is being made for an outer road that will connect Scott City and Cape Girardeau. The study will determine the social, economic and environmental impact of several proposed routes for the outer road. Duke said that the department hopes the location study will be completed by the end of the year.