MoDOT hires consultant for I-55 Exit 93 project

The Missouri Department of Transportation has hired Garver USA's Kansas City office to help the agency come up with ideas for a reconfigured Exit 93 along Interstate 55 in Cape Girardeau.

A few years ago, MoDOT was looking at replacing a bridge connecting southbound traffic on Kingshighway to I-55 or Highway 74.

It is a span the department calls a "flyover," noting it is in "poor condition."

The bridge was constructed in 1961 and MoDOT's website indicated the traffic load is more than 6,000 cars per day.

MoDOT project manager Tim Pickett said the agency has a "bigger picture" than merely bridge replacement for the interchange.

"We need Garver to give us eight different concepts from which we'll drill down on four ideas and thoroughly vet them. Once this happens, we'll come to the public in late summer and solicit input," Pickett said.

Cape Girardeau Mayor Bob Fox told the Southeast Metropolitan Planning Organization (SEMPO) earlier this month city officials are highly interested in whatever plans MoDOT eventually presents.

"(Exit 93) is of vital interest to the southern part of the city because it offers more possibility for economic development. Right now, the exit is kind of discombobulated. We've felt it would be nice to have a more regular interchange there, which may mean rerouting Highway 74 over the area that floods," Fox said.

"It is a difficult exit. If you're coming from the north and you get off, it's hard to access South Kingshighway. The design has got to be such that it allows equal access from all directions, and right now the interchange doesn't do that. A lot of the discussion will be about expense, about the difficulty of rerouting 74, but it's got to be designed correctly."

Funding

In a public hearing Dec. 2 held at the Osage Centre, attendees were told by agency officials changes to Exit 93 are part of the department's Tier One and Tier Two plans -- plans MoDOT's director Patrick McKenna said were made possible by the General Assembly's passage of Senate Bill 262, a graduated gasoline tax increase from 17 cents a gallon to 29.5 cents a gallon by July 2025.

Tier One projects should be formally announced in June.

In the initial tier, $5 million is slated for capacity improvements at Exit 93/I-55.

In the second tier, $17 million in capital improvements, including a complete redesign of the Exit 93 interchange, is anticipated.