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50 years ago: I-55 link between Cape, St. Louis completed
Interstate 55 has been a major conduit for growth in Cape Girardeau and other towns and cities along its path from Louisiana to Illinois.
Fifty years ago, on July 12, 1972, the last concrete segment of I-55, connecting Cape Girardeau and St. Louis, was poured.
There was no fanfare or celebration that day, but a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Aug. 31, 1972, with 1,500 people in attendance. Gov. Warren E. Hearnes cut the ribbon, officially opening that section of the interstate.
I-55 construction, in Missouri, began July 17, 1962, and Gov. John Dalton opened a 14-mile stretch from Fruitland to Scott City on Sept. 8, 1963.
The interstate now stretches from LaPlace, Louisiana, north through Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri and terminates in Chicago. The entire length, 960 miles, was completed in 1979.
According to the state Department of Transportation, Missouri was the first state to award a construction contract under the provisions of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, signed by President Dwight Eisenhower. The first section of interstate completed in Missouri was a segment of Interstate 70 built in St. Charles County on Nov. 9, 1956.
Built to give the southeast part of Missouri a safer route to St. Louis, I-55 replaced U.S. 61 as the main thoroughfare.
Cape Girardeau Ward 4 Councilman Robbie Guard said I-55 increased availability to the Cape Girardeau community and to St. Louis.
“I’m a sixth generation Cape Girardeau resident,” Guard said. “I still remember the Super 8 home video of Interstate 55 still under construction out by Hopper Road because my grandparents lived right there.”
Cape Girardeau Ward 6 Councilman Mark Bliss drove from St. Louis with his parents to start school at Southeast Missouri State University before the interstate was complete.
“In subsequent years, you started to see a lot more students from St Louis come down to SEMO because I-55 had been completed,” Bliss said. “That made a big difference on the number of people coming down, at least from my perspective. Over the years, of course, there’s been a lot of development.”
Mayor Stacey Kinder agreed that having the I-55 access in Cape Girardeau has been tremendous to the city’s growth and development over the past half-century. She said today’s business and travel habits demand a fast, efficient way to get safely to a destination, so the city’s ability to serve as an ideal location for industry, work, school or as a weekend destination for tournaments or entertainment, is better enhanced by I-55.
“To be economically viable today, a city really needs to have an interstate connection,” Bliss added. “There’s a lot of things that wouldn’t be developed if it weren’t for I-55. SportsPlex is out there because of the interstate, as well as all the development along Siemers Drive. I don’t think that would be there were it not for 55.”
Mark Croarkin, southeast district engineer for Missouri Department of Transportation, said traffic between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis has tripled since the completion of I-55, from about 8,000 vehicles a day in 1972 to about 26,000 today.
“Tourism is definitely impacted by the number of people that use I-55,” said Brenda Newbern, executive director of VisitCape.
“Whether or not they were intending to come to Cape Girardeau, or just passing through and needed to stop for gas or food because of it’s proximity between St Louis and Memphis (Tennessee). That in and of itself is a big asset for us.”
Rob Gilligan, president and CEO of Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce said the impact of the Federal Interstate System on business and commerce cannot be understated.
Dustin Boatwright, a commissioner of Missouri Highways and Transportation and chief engineer for the Little River Drainage District concurred, saying the interstate provides a growing corridor for freight movement along with providing a connection through the heart of the United States’s prime agricultural landscape with major metropolitan areas such as New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis and Chicago.
For the last 50 years, I-55 has brought the world closer to Cape Girardeau while still remaining at a comfortable distance.
“That interstate makes the world smaller both from an economic and social standpoint, while still being able to enjoy all the perks of living in a city like Cape Girardeau,” Guard said. “I’ve always said, if you look at I-55, because of that highway you can live and have small-town atmosphere and can be an hour and 40 minutes away from anything in the world.”