NASH ROAD EASES TRAFFIC

SCOTT CITY -- Shirley Young can't say enough good things about the completion of the Nash Road extension into the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority.

"It's going to be nothing but good," said Young, president of the Scott City Chamber of Commerce and a former Scott City mayor. "Everything about it is positive."

On Friday, the port authority and the Missouri Department of Transportation will cut the ribbon officially opening the new stretch of road to traffic. Starting at 1:30 p.m., groundbreaking ceremonies will be held at Consolidated Grain and Barge and Missouri Fibre Corp. (Canal Wood Chip), two industries new to the port, and the ribbon cutting for the road extension will follow.

The road extension will help ease traffic into the port, and that's expected to attract more industry to the port facility.

Young said she's been lobbying since 1989 for the extension.

"Now we have river, rail, interstate and airport accessibility. There's a lot going for not only Scott City, but the whole region," she said.

Completion of the Nash Road project is "probably one of the two major things that the port has been trying to get done," said Dan Overbey, director of the port authority.

The other was the purchase and completion of a railroad line into the port in 1995.

"This is really a keystone in getting everything in place for the port," Overbey said.

Greater ease of access, especially with so many transportation modes to choose from, will bring more industries into the port, he said. And that's what they've been working toward.

Port officials currently are working with Riverport Terminals, Inc., a grain-bagging operation looking to move into the port. Riverport would transfer grains and grain-meals for transport to the Gulf of Mexico.

Initially, state highway officials estimate, the road will carry 1,350 vehicles daily, including 35 percent truck traffic, mostly going to the port and Scott City's industrial area.

"I think it's going to be a tremendous improvement and will really make a very beautiful entrance for the port and port authority," said Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Area Industrial Recruitment Association. "Just from being down there in the mud to having a paved, beautiful road is going to be a big asset."

Industries will be impressed by the new entrance, Robinson said.

"Image, that sells. Having the nice entrance and the improvements to the rail and the new businesses, that shows a progressive port authority, and that sells. You're not trying to sell a beanfield anymore," he said.

The road is "awfully close" to being finished, except for some cleanup, landscaping and grinding a few bumps out of the new concrete, said Bob Wilson, resident engineer with the transportation department.

Total estimated cost of the project is $10 million, and work started in the fall of 1994.

Improvements included construction of two lanes of concrete pavement and 8-foot shoulders from the interchange at Interstate 55 into the port, filling in a floodplain along Ramsey creek and the construction of bridges over Ramsey Creek and the railroad.

Consolidated Grain is building a $4 million, 230,000-bushel grain elevator as the first in a series of developments in its local operation. Company officials said they decided to locate at the port because of the Nash Road project, and rail access will help the company continue to grow.

Freight handled through the port dropped by nearly 65 percent last year. Part of that was caused when the Sikeston Power Plant had to temporarily convert from burning petroleum coke, which is brought in by barge, to burning coal, which is brought in by rail.

With the improvements in access, Overbey said, "We're looking to set some new record levels for freight in 1998 and '99."

The port authority currently is working to complete several projects within the port itself, including street improvements, a sanitary sewer system, improvements to the railroad tracks, construction of a dredge basin and construction of an auxiliary dock just in case a flood shuts down the primary dock, he said.

The final phase of the port construction will be filling in part of the harbor to create a 40-acre industrial site.

Cost is estimated at $1.2 million, and Overbey and the port authority board are looking at funding sources.

"That's probably the next item we need to take care of. We're probably about 95, 98 percent done. That's the only thing left," he said.