A step ahead for new expressway

The following editorial appeared in the (Sterling) Daily Gazette on Jan. 18:

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(MCT) — Two weeks ago, a Missouri transportation group made a decision that could positively impact the Sauk Valley.

The group is the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission.

Its decision is to spend more than $450,000 to install nearly 2,400 route marker signs along the Missouri stretch of the Chicago-Kansas City Expressway.

The impact will be to pave the way for greater promotion of the C-KC Expressway, which passes through our region along Interstate 88.

In 2010, C-KC signs, along with the new designation of state Route 110, were put up from Chicagoland to the Quad Cities and then south through Galesburg, Monmouth and Macomb to the Quincy area.

Now, Missouri will place C-KC and Missouri Route 110 signs all along the route from Hannibal westward to Interstate 35 and south to Kansas City.

The chairwoman of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, Grace M. Nichols, looks forward to the benefits both states will derive.

“We believe this is a great opportunity to promote regional economic development efforts,” Nichols wrote.

With Missouri’s action, drivers all along the 532-mile route will have proper signage to direct them to the expressway and keep them on the right track.

Although the Chicago-Kansas City Expressway is not well known, that may well change. After Missouri puts up its signs, promotional efforts will begin in earnest.

Promoters bill the route as a less-crowded alternative to Interstates 55 and 70, and an economic development tool for towns along the way, such as Rock Falls, Dixon and Rochelle.

After all, what community wouldn’t welcome more travelers, some of whom will want to buy fuel, meals, lodging, goods and services?

Plans are afoot to create a Chicago-Kansas City Expressway Association. Member communities would use the group to encourage commercial and private vehicle traffic on that route.

One possible fly in the ointment is the Illinois Tollway’s higher tolls, which nearly doubled on Jan. 1.

The new C-KC and state Route 110 certainly can’t hurt. The power of a route designation can have lasting, even iconic, impact.