New I-80 exit will help archway reach full potential

When the Great Platte Road Archway Monument was being completed, an infamous "Do Not Stop" sign was erected along Interstate 80.

The roads department intended it as a safety measure; too many gawkers were pulling over to check out the huge new structure looming over the highway. While it was quickly changed to more accurately reflect the safety measure, too many drivers found it too easy to take the original advice.

Opened in 2000, the Archway Monument can only be reached by following a roundabout route on back roads from the main Kearney exit.

That meant overly optimistic visitor projections couldn't be met, staffing and expenses had to be cut, debt refinanced and the mission of the facility shifted more toward educational and group tours.

The monument's main problem, access, will be rectified with the announcement Tuesday that a new project will finally provide easy access to the monument and the east side of Kearney.

Called the Cherry Avenue Bypass, the $50 million project will include an Interstate 80 exit onto Cherry Avenue and a four-lane divided highway north to 11th Street in Kearney. The off-ramp is expected to be completed in 2013; the next phases are expected to take three or four years to complete.

It wasn't like archway proponents -- the late Frank B. Morrison chief among them -- didn't forsee the access problem.

The idea was broached in 1997 as the archway was being planned, but $19 million wasn't earmarked for the Cherry Avenue exit until 2005, and it has been awaiting funding and FONSI -- a Finding of No Significant Impact environmental study.

"Too bad that state and federal red tape delayed this so long, giving inflation time to increase construction costs, but better late than never" Sen. Ben Nelson said in a letter read at Tuesday's announcement.

If you have never visited the archway, you don't have to wait until the new overpass is completed to do so. Students and history buffs can find plenty to enjoy, including 24 life-size cast figures with faces cast from real people; an authentic 1914 Ford Model T and 1927 Oldsmobile in the Lincoln Highway scene, plus a 1961 Cadillac convertible in a drive-in theater scene.

Like it or not, Nebraska has always been known as a place to pass through -- from the earliest fur trappers on their way to the mountains to the covered wagons depicted in the archway to construction of the railroad that led to the formation of the state. Railroads, highways, airports and pipelines transversing Nebraska play a major part in the state's economy.

The new overpass will help the Archway Monument pay tribute to all those who played a part in this important aspect of the Cornhusker state's history.