Ambitious road improvement plan for Cape

Business Today

Cape Girardeau drivers will see orange barrels and construction crews on many city streets this year.

The city has a dozen road and bridge projects -- in addition to its ongoing asphalt paving program -- on the drawing board for design work and/or construction this year.

One roadway in need of repair is Commercial Street, an asphalt-and-gravel street full of potholes that make traveling on it a very bumpy ride. Property owners along the street, which runs just east of Kingshighway, have complained about the poor condition of the road for years.

City engineer Mark Lester said the city plans to construct a wider concrete street and improve drainage from where the concrete pavement ends at Walnut Street south to its dead end at Hickory Street. The project will cost an estimated $181,000. The city plans to start construction by this fall and have the project completed by early 2005, Lester said.

Property owners along the street will be tax-billed for the cost, he said, which is routinely done for paving work on streets that serve only businesses. The other projects are being funded by Transportation Trust Fund sales taxes or motor fuel taxes.

The city has plans for other road improvements.

Work should begin later this month on improving and widening Independence Street from Pacific to Sprigg streets. The nearly $260,000 project includes concrete pavement, storm water and traffic signal upgrades, and new curbs, gutters, water mains and sidewalks. Lappe Cement Finishing Inc. of Perryville is the contractor.

The work on Independence, one of the city's major east-west streets, is just the beginning of the city's long-range plan to improve Independence from Water Street west to Kingshighway. The project has been on the city's to-do list since 1991.

The city also plans to reconstruct Minnesota Avenue from Bloomfield Road to College Street, adding sidewalks and curbs and gutter and storm drainage. Lester said easements are being acquired on that project now.

Two projects -- the Bloomfield Road bridge and the improvement of Silver Springs Road from Highway 74 to Mount Auburn Road -- already are under construction and should be completed later this year. The $535,000 bridge project should be completed this spring.

Paving of a new, wider and realigned Silver Springs Road at a cost of nearly $384,000 should be finished by early summer, Lester said.

The city also plans to begin widening Bloomfield Road, creating a 36-foot-wide concrete street from Siemers Drive to Stonebridge this summer. The project, which will tie into the new Bloomfield Road bridge, includes drainage work and sidewalks.

The contract has yet to be awarded for the project, which could cost more than $1 million.

Construction should start this summer on a new intersection at South Kingshighway and Silver Springs Road. The city and the Missouri Department of Transportation plan to split the estimated $465,000 cost of that project, which includes extending the concrete pavement of Silver Springs Road to connect with busy South Kingshighway.

In addition, the city plans to reconstruct Bertling Street from Sprigg Street to Perryville Road, removing and replacing concrete pavement and improving drainage. That project could cost nearly $184,000.

While construction isn't expected this year, engineering work is underway to widen a section of Broadway, one of the city's main thoroughfares. Engineering work also is expected to proceed on three other projects: a realignment of Lombardo Drive, Linden Street widening and the extension of Fountain Street from Morgan Oak to William Street.

Southeast Missouri State University has hired an engineering firm to do the planning work for widening Broadway from Perry Avenue to Houck Place. The city plans to reimburse the university for the engineering cost.

The planning work should be completed this year, but construction on the $2 million project won't begin until next year, officials said.