Statue plans for Jackson roundabout nixed due to new MoDOT requirements

Motorists drive through a roundabout at the intersection of East Main Street and Shawnee Boulevard in Jackson on June 30, 2020. A newer roundabout in the city, planned for the intersection of Deerwood Drive and North High Street, will not feature any kind of statue or monument due to updated MoDOT specifications.

Southeast Missourian file

A future roundabout in Jackson will not feature any signs or statues after all.

Janet Sanders, director of Public Works for the City of Jackson, said the roundabout planned for the intersection of Deerwood Drive and North High Street would not include decorations because of new specifications from the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT).

“Not even shrubbery,” Sanders said. “Right now, the plan is to have probably landscaping rock.”

Sanders spoke with Chris Crocker, an area engineer for MoDOT’s Southeast District, about potential decoration for the area. In recent meetings, the Jackson Board of Aldermen had suggested it feature a wall with the city’s name or a statue of its namesake, seventh U.S. president and wartime general Andrew Jackson.

Sanders shared a letter detailing information from Crocker with the aldermen during their Monday, June 17, meeting.

“While his initial response was somewhat optimistic given the draft MoDOT specs, he reiterated the MoDOT specs that might allow monuments are still in draft form and are determined by the MoDOT folks in Jefferson City. Review of any submitted plan is also reviewed in Jefferson City and is a lengthy process. The draft MoDOT specifications have been in the works as long as he can remember and he cannot project a finalization date,” Sanders said.

On June 13, Crocker told Sanders that MoDOT had added a specification to the draft saying monument areas would only be allowed for roundabouts with speed limits less than 40 miles per hour. The current speed limit of the roundabout area is 45 miles per hour. Since North High Street is part of U.S. 61, MoDOT is in charge of the speed limit there and it cannot be changed by community request.

“I think a lot has to go into play with that, but the higher the speed, maybe the less reaction time a motorist would have to react to a fixed object in the center of a roundabout,” Crocker told the Southeast Missourian.

Under the new roundabout specifications, the only decorations available for the roundabout would be low-profile landscaping and low shrubbery with a trunk diameter of 3 inches or less.