Detours for upcoming replacement of two bridges in Carthage, Missouri, has Route 66 businesses fretting that tourists will bypass their town.
The Missouri Department of Transportation will start to replace two bridges on Highway 96 (aka Route 66) on the northeast side of town next spring. The projects won’t be finished until fall 2017.
The official detour when the projects begin is Highway 37, County Route E, Fairview Avenue and Garrison Avenue (map here). That would take travelers well south of downtown Carthage and its tourism-friendly landmarks.
During a MoDOT forum this week, at least two Route 66 businesses spoke about the need of a detour that will funnel tourism traffic into the city’s heart, according to the Joplin Globe:
Deborah Harvey, one of the owners of the historic Boots Motel, was one of several who called for alternate plans to route traffic into Carthage.
“What they’re proposing is just going to put people back on the interstate,” she said. “We would like to see them keep the detours for truck traffic, but reroute car traffic on V Highway to north Garrison, into town.”
Kevin Frazier, an owner of Best Budget Inn near Kellogg Lake, agreed.
“It was bad enough when they built the last bridge; this would kill us,” he said.
Frazier is referring to another time when MoDOT replaced another bridge on Highway 96 northeast of town and detoured Route 66 travelers far from Carthage’s corridor. The Carthage Press explained:
Ron Hart and Debye Harvey remember well when the new Highway 96 bridge over Spring River at Kellogg Lake was built in 2012.
Hart, who runs the Route 66 Chamber of Commerce, and Harvey, who owns the Boots Court, said it was a nightmare for Route 66 tourists who were trying to follow the Mother Road on a vacation of a lifetime in some cases.
The problem was that MoDOT wouldn’t include information on its detour signs at Highway 37 near Avilla telling tourists and people that vehicles lighter than nine tons could continue and come into Carthage on County Route V through Kendricktown and on North Garrison Street. […]
Hart and Harvey said tourists and Route 66 travelers were upset when they were forced to use the detour on County Route E and Fairview Avenue.
“When they got to Fairview and Garrison, they didn’t know which way to go to get back on Route 66 and there were a lot of people who were very upset,” Hart said. “They lost so much time they did not stop, they didn’t spend any money, they left town in a hurry because they didn’t know what was happening.” […]
“It hurts the community,” Harvey said. “Even if they get back on, accidentally, Route 66, they will completely miss the Square, they will completely miss most of the revenue generating area. Because they come in on Fairview, they won’t be far enough south to catch that area and they’ll be too far south to get this commercial district on the Square and on Central. They’re going to go straight ahead and get out of here.”
The best detour for westbound Route 66 travelers would be taking Java Street to Garrison Avenue, which would directly lead to downtown.
Perhaps MoDOT, after receiving criticism for its lack of detours for Route 66 travelers in 2012, will allow an alternate tourism detour this time.
The bridges being replaced next year are the Spring River overflow bridge, built in 1935, and the Missouri 96 overpass, built in 1934.
(Image of the Boots Court in Carthage, Missouri, by Tony Hisgett via Flickr)
We encountered this problem in 2012 trying to get to the Best Budget Inn. Very bewildering for Route 66 travelers. Hope MODOT will take the info to heart.
During the 2012 MoDOT detour fiasco East of Carthage Missouri, the directional signs erected just West of Avilla on 66 stated “BRIDGE-OUT”, “LOCAL TRAFFIC ONLY”, “TAKE DETOUR”. This implied that a bridge just a short distance away was impassable. Route 66 travelers did not know that the bridge work was nine miles away on the the East side of Carthage, and that there existed a 20-year Alternate of 66 that would would easily take them into town, with some interesting structures to enjoy along the way!
I suggest to the MoDOT rep at this meeting that since their only concern was to detour trucks and vehicles over 10 tons, why not simply state this on their sign? There is absolutely no need to indicate a ‘bridge-out’ or ‘local traffic only’ since there is access to Carthage by continuing on the straight, level path of Highway 96/66. Those taking the detour will be facing a long detour over a hilly, narrow two-lane road along with large trucks for company….and upon arriving in South Carthage, there may not be any directions on how to find the Courthouse Square and the original Route 66!
MoDOT claims that they cannot intentionally re-route traffic to County roadways, so our first mission is to convince our County Commissioners to support our signage proposal and tell the State that it is OK for Tourists and Route 66 travelers to ‘use’ their City and County streets….and also to provide proper directional signage at the detour, and again at ‘V’ highway for our visitors.
In 2012, the Route 66 Chamber of Commerce placed directional signs indicating the ‘V’ highway alternate and had hundreds of maps showing the Route for East and West-bound travelers that were handed-out by Route 66 businesses in Kansas and S.W. Missouri. We also posted on Route 66 Facebook pages that it was OK to NOT take the detour. I estimate that only about 20% of the 66’rs got this map, so there was an adverse economic effect on Route 66 businesses that I do not want to see happen again. Since the bridge work will run between April and December of 2017, a time when restaurants, motels and shops on the Square depend on tourism for their very survival, it is imperative that Carthage residents and business owners take our concerns to the City and County as soon as possible!