Working together

It takes two to tango, the saying goes, and Cape Girardeau officials and residents affected by the planned Bloomfield Road improvements scheduled to start in April have become pretty good ballroom dancers.

When the city first announced its construction schedule to widen Bloomfield from Siemers Drive and Stonebridge Drive, the aim was to limit the inconvenience to local motorists by closing the street, which would speed up the construction. But that would have meant lengthy detours during construction.

In response to residents' concerns, the city's engineering staff took another look at the project and came up with a two-phase construction schedule. There will still be some inconveniences and detours, but most local residents will have shorter access to other main routes. And emergency vehicles will be able to get through the area throughout the project.

One effort to ensure on-time completion of the widening project, which will also add sidewalks, is the city's decision to triple daily penalties the contractor would have to pay for missing the completion deadline, now estimated to be July 1.

By working together -- learning to dance, so to speak -- the city has come up with a plan that should ease some of the concerns local motorists raised over the original construction schedule. Once again, a potential problem has been addressed by letting the public have its say and responding prudently.