OAK RIDGE EXIT STALLED; INTERCHANGE NO LONGER ON PLAN

Not quite two months after being assured their Interstate 55 interchange was on the way, Oak Ridge residents may be in for another disappointment. But they are used to it.

Meeting Thursday in Kansas City, the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission decided to commit to road and bridge projects through 1999, but to scrap the rest of a 15-year plan created in 1992.

The Department of Transportation's chief engineer, Joe Mickes, said the department will reassess the rest of the projects and decide their priority. At the heart of the problem is a funding shortfall -- estimated between $2 billion and $12 billion.

Both Oak Ridge and Jackson had Interstate 55 interchanges on the 15-year plan.

In summer 1995, the Department of Transportation asked the Cape Girardeau County Commission to decide if the Oak Ridge interchange at Highway E should stay on the plan or be bumped in favor of an interchange at East Main Street in Jackson.

To the relief of Oak Ridge community leaders, the commission voted that the plan should be left alone. The Transportation Department agreed. In October 1995, Jackson community leaders convinced the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission to put their interchange on the plan anyway.

A committee to promote the Oak Ridge interchange later met with Highway Commissioner Mark Preyer of Kennett. Committee members representing several northern Cape Girardeau County communities expressed their support of the project.

Brenda Schoen, a committee leader, received a letter from the Missouri Department of Transportation's Sikeston office dated Oct. 25, 1996, and mailed by project manager Lynelle Luther. The letter thanked Schoen for meeting with Preyer and with Scott Meyer, District 10 engineer, about the Oak Ridge interchange.

"This project is in the preliminary design phase and at this time we anticipate that the plans will be complete for the 2000 letting," Luther wrote. A sketch of the interchange was mailed with the letter.

Preyer said Monday that any project being let for bids in the year 2000 isn't necessarily going to get done.

"We don't want people to feel the 15-year plan was thrown in the trash bin," he said. "There are many good projects we are committed to seeing get done, but we are not identifying them until we know we will be able to do them."

Preyer blamed the funding shortfall on overly optimistic predictions about federal funding for road projects, project costs and inflation rates. He also said it wasn't realistic for any group to predict transportation needs for 15 years in the future.

The commission wants to start planning only five years at a time.

Schoen said she wasn't surprised at the change of plan.

"This has happened to us three times," she said. "A promise for an interchange was made to us 25 years ago. It has been on and off the plan ever since, depending on the political agenda."

Oak Ridge Board of Trustees records show the Route E interchange was in the original plan for Interstate 55 in 1969, but wasn't built. The issue has come up several times since then, only to fade back into the shadows. Residents still must drive several miles to Fruitland or Jackson to get on Interstate 55.

That doesn't seem to bother Oak Ridge Mayor Don Stahlheber. Once a vocal proponent of an interchange, he isn't active in promoting one these days.

"I don't really care," Stahlheber said. "I think generally the town board was in support of it. When I talked about supporting it, I was really speaking for the town board."

Jackson City Administrator Steve Wilson was a little more concerned about the changes, but he said Jackson would get its East Main Street interchange back on the plan.

He has plenty of time to convince the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission: East Main won't run out to the interstate for at least another 10 years.

"There is no question in my mind that we can make a very strong case for placement on the Transportation Department's list of projects," Wilson said.

It hasn't been determined when the Missouri Department of Transportation will release another list of projects.