Four-lane link worthy of study, beginning soon
Name a big project, and you'll always find its detractors.
The proposed four-lane link between Interstate 70 and Interstate 80 is no moon shot, but it's already drawing discussion.
It will bring more business to McCook. It will allow traffic to bypass McCook altogether. It's a highway to nowhere. It's needed to keep McCook competitive.
All those ideas are out there already, but we don't really know how to respond.
That's why the McCook Economic Development Corp. and the McCook Area Chamber of Commerce would like the state to at least study the proposal.
With endorsements from the City Council and County Commissioners in hand, they'll make a pitch at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Holiday Inn Express -- appropriately enough, on U.S. Highway 83 in McCook, the highway they hope to widen and expand. The occasion is a District 7 planning meeting conducted by the Nebraska Department of Roads. Usually sparsely attended, these events are tailor-made for anyone who has ideas about how to improve highway transportation in their area.
Many of us, perhaps, don't think about what an important resource Highway 83 is.
Stretching from Westhope, N.D., to Brownsville, Texas, the highway is the fourth-longest north-south route in the United States. It connects to Manitoba Highway 83 in Canada and crosses the Veteran's International Bridge on the Mexican border, where it connects with Mexican Federal Highway 180.
Designated the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Highway in Nebraska, it is already an important trade corridor and holds potential for much more growth as new trade develops with our neighbors to the north and south.
A link between the two interstates opens new efficiencies for freight and personal vehicle traffic, especially involving traffic from the northeast to southwest, as well as northwest to southeast travel.
One of the issues which will have to be dealt with becomes apparent whenever oversize loads like wind turbine blades come through McCook, stopping traffic at the U.S. Highway 83 junctions with Highways 6-34 on the west side of McCook and at the railroad viaduct at East Sixth.
Would traffic on the new four-lane link follow the same route? If the square corners on Highway 83 are straightened out, would it require a new viaduct or new bridge over the Republican River?
Questions like those -- and many others -- will have to be answered before the four-lane interstate link can be seriously considered.
In all likelihood, the project will take longer than it took to land a man on the moon. The sooner we get started, the better.