Jackson roadway lighting on front burner

Jackson's Board of Aldermen is expecting an update soon from Strickland Engineering on design and cost estimates for a long-discussed project to illuminate part of the main roadway into the Cape Girardeau County seat.

"The council wants to light the corridor along East Jackson Boulevard from Old Orchard Road to Alliance Bank," said Don Schuette, municipal director of electric utilities, who said the city has been discussing illuminating the stretch since 2006.

"There's quite a dark area there [and] the project probably will consist in the neighborhood of 135 standards total on both sides of East Jackson with LED lighting, which will need to be designed to meet Missouri Department of Transportation specs," he added, noting it has been awhile since the city received a previous cost estimate of $1 million to $1.2 million.

Under the previous design, the lights were to be positioned approximately 160 feet apart.

"I think there is renewed interest in doing something. The project had been kind of on the back burner, and it's been pushed back to the front again," said city administrator Jim Roach, who added the city is discussing various options to get the work funded -- including grants, existing city funding and possibly utilizing the city's share of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) monies. "There's a possibility of using (ARPA) funds, and we might break it up into several phases rather than the whole thing, once we get a better sense of the cost and an updated design."