UNION COUNTY REFUGE ROAD FROM ROUTE 3 WILL REOPEN

WARE, Ill. -- The Route 3 entrance road to Union County Wildlife Refuge, which was closed by the Illinois Commerce Commission in 1983, is expected to reopen this year.

The commission issued an approval for the reopening of the road recently in response to a petition from the Union County Board of Commissioners, which long has supported the reopening, and the Union County Road District.

The refuge road, which crosses tracks of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, was closed by order of the commission in 1983 following a fatal train-car accident.

"The ICC approved the petition to reopen the road last month, and has agreed to pay 95 percent of the cost of installing signals and gates for the railroad crossing," said Dan Drewes, railroad safety assistant administrator for the ICC at Springfield.

The decision will mean more than a million dollars in improvements connected with the reopening of the refuge road and the closing of another crossing about a half mile south of Ware.

"The County Road District sought closure of a railroad track just south of Ware, where traffic was described as "minimal."

Drewes said the reopening of the refuge road would create a "substantial amount of statewide traffic into the area."

He said the total cost of the two projects is about $1.1 million.

Almost a million dollars ($948,856) of that was scheduled for development and improvements of 4.01 miles of the road and construction of a bridge inside the refuge.

"Much of that work has already been done," said Bob Zieba of the Illinois Department of Transportation office at Carbondale. "We have completed 3.5 miles of widening and reconstructing on the refuge road, which enters the refuge from Route 146 east of Ware."

The road, which is called Tollgate Road, passes the refuge headquarters building and leads to a point where the new refuge entrance will be added.

"The refuge road improvement was for widening and upgrading the surface of Tollgate Road and replacement of a bridge over the C-Line ditch," said Zieba. "That leaves about a half-mile of road improvements to complete the 4.01-mile improvement to the new Route 3 entrance."

Funds for the new access entrance and road improvements came from a gasoline tax increase approved in 1989.

Work is already under way on the new entrance.

A contract for the bridge over Running Lake Ditch has already been let, said Zieba. Drilling and soil testing is also under way to find "good compaction" dirt for some fill work.

Drewes said the commerce commission had estimated the cost of installing signals and gates for the new crossing at $105,914, with the commission to pay 95 percent of that. Another cost at the actual crossing will be $35,000 for two new crossing surfaces. This cost will be absorbed by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

The department did the design and construction work on the Tollgate Road as part of a cooperative park roads improvement agreement with the Department of Conservation.

Also in the planning stage for the refuge is a new information and visitors' center that would be situated just east of the new crossing.

Dick Nance of the Union County Wildlife Refuge said he felt reopening of the road off Route 3 would increase visitors to the refuge.

During the winter months the refuge, which is home to thousands of wintering Canada geese, attracts many visitors.

"We have people from all parts of the nation visit this refuge to view the large flocks of geese," said Dick Vance, a conservation department worker at the refuge. "We're glad to see plans to open up the refuge for tourists with a southern access to the area."

People traveling Route 3 now have to take the Route 146 entrance in and out of the refuge.

The new opening also will be attractive to people from the immediate Southeast Missouri area, including Cape Girardeau, the largest city along Interstate 55 from St. Louis to Memphis.

During the period 1984 through 1990, records show that only 59,900 people visited the refuge, an average of less than 10,000 a year.

"It is projected that traffic will increase substantially and that a majority of the traffic will use the Route 3 refuge road entrance into the refuge," said Vance.