City and county officials clashed with the Missouri Department of Transportation over the proposed re-striping of Business 60/Pine Street in a Wednesday afternoon meeting at the Poplar Bluff Police Department headquarters.
MoDOT Transportation Project Manager Curt Woolsey presented the possible reconfiguration to community stakeholders along with traffic professional Steve Hoernig and traffic study specialist Davis Varga.
The potential layout change would convert the route from four lanes down to two with a turn lane in the center. The arrangement is known as a road diet.
An example of this type of configuration is Highway 53 from Fair Street to Highway 142. If approved, the project would include a resurfacing of Business 60/Pine Street. Work would begin in January 2025 and would be completed in fall of 2026. The scheme would stretch from where the road intersects 10th Street to Route B, a substantial portion of Business 60/Pine Street’s course through Poplar Bluff.
The primary cited reason for the change was the volume of accidents observed. From 2019-2023, MoDOT’s consultant, the LochMueller Group, found there were 301 accidents. Ninety were rear-end while 158 were passing, left-turn, left-turn right-angle, and right-angle collisions.
Hoernig pointed to a similar reconfiguration on a road in Iowa bringing about a 48.65% decrease in crashes. However, the proposed action was met with stiff opposition from local leaders.
“Do any of y’all live in Poplar Bluff?” Street Department Superintendent Jerry Lawson challenged.
The MoDOT representatives said they did not.
Lawson replied, “Enough said.”
His sentiments were echoed by President of the Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce Steve Halter and Butler County Eastern District Commissioner Don “Butch” Anderson, who is a 34-year MoDOT veteran.
The trio emphasized the need to observe the road from the ground during rush hour to see that the possible reduction in lanes could not work.
“We’re not going toward the future with a project like this. We’re going to the past,” Anderson emphasized.
Halter polled the room, asking if any of the community leaders were in favor of the reconfiguration. The room included the aforementioned individuals along with Butler County Emergency Management Director Robbie Myers, Poplar Bluff Fire Department Chief Mike Moffitt, Poplar Bluff Police Department Chief Mike McClain, Chairman of the Highway 67 Corporation Bill Robison, city council member Barbara Horton, Presiding Butler County Commissioner Vince Lampe, Interim City Manager Lori Phelps, Black River Coliseum Director Greg Smith, and others.
None replied in the affirmative to Halter’s question.
“You can change your lights all you want. It’s going to be backed up,” he asserted.
Lawson said the safety concerns of the road design ultimately fall on the driver, not MoDOT.
“We’re not saying that there’s not personal responsibility on the part of the drivers, but we do have a responsibility as a government agency to try to make things as safe as we reasonably can,” Hoernig countered. “All the research shows this works and this helps.”
He recounted how changes like the proposed action are often met with opposition.
“This isn’t just people who don’t like change,” Halter objected. “I can’t find anyone I’ve talked to who thinks this is a good idea.”
Anderson said the change resulting from previous projects like the roundabout on Highway 160 has been positive. Nevertheless, he maintained the re-striping of Business 60/Pine Street was the wrong move due to the possible traffic backup a reduction in lanes could cause.
Hoernig acknowledged that most individual’s reactions to the project would be similar.
“The people that have looked at it, the feds, us, the consultants, all of us say (Business 60/Pine Street) is not just a good candidate, this is a prime candidate (for a road diet). This is the area where we have the most chance of success, where we have the most probability of making bigger improvements,” he affirmed, and added the change can be reversed. “If it doesn’t work, it’s a paint job.”
Myers asked the MoDOT officials if there was a road in the region that underwent the same change that could be observed. Hoernig said a four-lane street in Lebanon, Missouri was converted to a road diet route with a central turn lane.
Nevertheless, the MoDOT team acknowledged Lebanon’s road was later expanded to five lanes.
“It’s almost certain there’s going to be some reduction in crashes, and I think it’s going to be significant,” Hoernig argued. “It’s going to perform even better traffic flow-wise at least some than it already does now. I know it’s counterintuitive.”
He pointed to Fifth and Ninth streets as key bottlenecks in the existing layout. Halter pushed for firm metrics to measure crash reduction and traffic flows, but MoDOT did not have firm plans to re-evaluate on any given timeline.
Varga noted the traffic study showed a high incidence of crashes, especially at the curve on the East Side of Poplar Bluff after the bridge.
“If you’re planning on doing this, which we are against as a community, then we have to see (metrics),” Halter said.
He expressed if the metrics were not met, MoDOT should be required to revert to the original traffic flow pattern.
“I think that’s fair,” Halter concluded.
Moffitt said, “Firetrucks are going to have to deal with this traffic. We’re going to be stuck in traffic...Your turning lanes are going to be full. Your east- and westbound lanes are going to be full. We’re going to have nowhere to go.”
Hoernig maintained the emergency vehicles would not be inhibited. Toward the end of the meeting, the MoDOT team acknowledged the strong community opposition to the plan.
“I’m going to be talking a lot more with our management about it,” Woolsey stated. “It sounds like there’s a lot of concerned opposition and, honestly, we’ve got to re-evaluate with our management.”
He agreed, if the re-striping is implemented anyway, to come up with some kind of measurable standard for traffic and accident rates. Woolsey confirmed MoDOT would come to a final decision by Nov. 30.
He concluded by thanking the community leaders for their input.
“We want to be open and trustworthy,” Woolsey emphasized.
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