I-66 ROUTES STUDIED; STATE FIGURES COSTS THROUGH MISSOURI

Construction of an interstate highway between Paducah, Ky., and Van Buren could cost from $450 million to $625 million depending on the route, Missouri highway officials say.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is doing a cost analysis of proposed Interstate 66. The cost study focuses on four alternatives involving five possible routes.

All of the routes would connect with Highway 60 at Van Buren, about 130 miles west of Paducah.

Highway 60 is already four lanes in some areas and the state plans to widen the remaining sections. That would give the state a four-lane, east-west highway stretching across southern Missouri from the Mississippi River to Springfield.

Chief Engineer Joe Mickes, who heads the department, could present the report to Gov. Mel Carnahan next week.

Freeman McCullah, assistant chief engineer for strategic planning, said highway officials may recommend the governor authorize the state to proceed with a traffic and economic impact study. An outside company would be hired to do the study, which could take a couple of years to complete, McCullah said.

McCullah and other highway officials in Jefferson City said that such a study is needed to get a true picture of the proposed project's cost-to-benefit ratio.

The cheapest route wouldn't be the best alternative if nobody drives it, he said.

There also would be added costs to upgrade Highway 60 to an interstate route from Van Buren to Springfield. The department's study didn't calculate that cost, McCullah said.

The department said the least expensive route would extend from Paducah into Illinois on Interstate 24 and then proceed west to Cape Girardeau, crossing the Mississippi River bridge under construction. From there, it would travel south on Interstate 55 to Sikeston and then west to Van Buren on Highway 60.

The most expensive route would cross into Illinois on Interstate 24 and proceed west to Cape Girardeau, and then southwest along a widened and straightened Highway 34 to Van Buren, highway officials said.

The state already plans to widen and straighten Highway 34 to make it a "super two" highway. In doing so, the state likely would buy enough right of way so it could be expanded to four lanes in the future if traffic warranted it, officials said.

In that case, the cost of building I-66 along the Highway 34 corridor might be more economically feasible, McCullah said.

Walt Wildman is executive director of I-66 Project Inc., based in Cape Girardeau. Wildman's group favors the Highway 34 corridor, the only route that wouldn't use an improved Highway 60 to reach Van Buren from the east.

Wildman said Highway 34 runs through areas of high unemployment. "Carter County is the poorest county in the state," he said. The I-66 project could boost the local economy throughout the region, he said.

Wildman has set up a Highway 34 committee to promote that route for I-66. About a dozen representatives from Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Marble Hill, Greenville, Piedmont and Van Buren are scheduled to meet on Aug. 12 to organize the group. The meeting will be held in Marble Hill.

While the I-66 group is lobbying for an interstate, Wildman said it would settle for a four-lane, limited-access highway or even a "super two" Highway 34 between Cape Girardeau and Van Buren.

"We would be fools not to take it," he said.

Transportation officials looked at two other alternatives. Each could cost under $500 million, said Lewis Hancock, assistant division engineer with the highway department in Jefferson City.

One of those routes would extend from Paducah to Wickliffe, Ky., on Highway 60. This route proposes constructing a Mississippi River bridge that would carry traffic into Missouri. The route would connect with Interstate 57 at Charleston and proceed west where it would connect with Highway 60 just east of Sikeston. The route would follow Highway 60 all the way to Van Buren.

The other alternative has two possible routes.

One would cross the Ohio River at Paducah on I-24 and then proceed west to I-57. The route would then proceed south across the I-57 Mississippi River bridge and west on I-57 to Highway 60. From there, the route would extend along Highway 60 to Van Buren.

The other route would extend straight west from Paducah and link with I-57 near Cairo, Ill., just before the interstate crosses the Mississippi River. This route would require a new bridge over the Ohio River.

Hancock said it could cost $130 million to build a bridge across either the Ohio or Mississippi rivers.