GOOD NEWS: HALF OF SEWER PROJECTS DONE

It is said that good things come to those who wait. Perhaps this adage provides solace to motorists as they detour throughout Cape Girardeau's many barricaded streets.

The detours are the result of a major sanitary sewer improvement program that began in 1996. As the project moves to more heavily traveled streets such as Broadway, the inconvenience seems heightened. As temperatures rise, so do tempers. This might be a fitting time to remember why this project is worth the inconveniences.

The project is designed to keep raw sewage in old sewer lines that also carry stormwater runoff from emptying into drainage ditches and Cape LaCroix Creek. The sewage also backs up into basements during heavy rains in older sections of town.

Separating the storm and sanitary sewers should also improve the efficiency of the city's wastewater treatment plant.

The project has long been a priority in the city. It was targeted as a key element of a 20-year sewer master plan in 1991. It has been a campaign issue in several municipal elections. The funding was approved in April 1994 when Cape Girardeau voters extended the city's quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax.

It is good that the city is progressing with the project on its own terms. Down the road, the government would probably have had a hand in forcing the work. Following the flood of 1993, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Missouri Department of Natural Resources began pushing for replacement of all combined sewers. The EPA already mandates cities of 100,000 or more to segregate combined sewer systems. It is better that Cape Girardeau set its own timetable and financing schedule that have it forced down the city's throat as an unfunded mandate.

Using new technology, the city has also tried to keep one lane of affected streets open to traffic. A new engineering technique, called micro-tunneling, allows contractors to dig straight down for 20 feet or more, then dig horizontally to complete the work.

The old method would have shut down both lanes of traffic and probably would have required complete replacement of a number of city streets.

Limiting traffic on heavily traveled roads to one-lane for weeks is nuisance enough. Both lanes closed? No thanks.

Motorists and affected homeowners can take some solace in the fact the $25 million project has passed the halfway mark. Just keep repeating to yourself: Inconvenience is a small price to pay for progress.