ALL ROADS LEAD TO CAPE'S NEW SCHOOLS

The Cape Girardeau School District's new Career and Technology Center sits along a dusty, gravel stretch of Silver Springs Road.

The city of Cape Girardeau plans to widen and pave the road, but that won't happen this year. With the $11.2 million vocational school set to open in August, the Cape Special Road District has agreed to put down a temporary layer of asphalt on the gravel road so students and staff won't be traveling through a dust bowl to and from school.

"It should last for a year," said Ralph Phillips, engineer for the special road district which maintains that stretch of Silver Springs Road.

Phillips figures the road district won't maintain that road for long. Once the permanent improvements are made, the city likely will take over maintenance, he said.

The area is certain to see its share of traffic when the new school opens. That's all the more reason for paving it, said Cape Girardeau schools superintendent Dan Steska.

A gravel road won't work, he said. "I think with teen-age drivers you are asking for an accident when you are coming in with hundreds of cars every day."

On a typical school day, as many as 700 to 800 students, adult learners and staff are expected to travel to and from the Career and Technology Center.

Traffic will be even heavier when the new high school opens in August 2002 with about 1,200 students and 130 teachers and staff on board.

Site work is under way for the $20.6 million high school, which will sit just to the north of the Career and Technology Center. Both schools are in a 70-acre tract that also will be developed with parking, athletic fields and storm water detention basins.

The city plans to spend an estimated $2.5 million on road improvements around the two new schools over the next few years.

Adjacent property owners, including the school district, will be tax billed for some of the cost of the improvements, City Engineer Mark Lester said.

Bids for extension

The city plans to open bids on March 22 for the extension of Southern Expressway west from its dead end at South Kingshighway to Mount Auburn Road and the intersection with Silver Springs Road.

Lester said it could cost half a million dollars to build the four-lane road, which will tie in with a newly paved stretch of Mount Auburn Road just to the northwest of the school property.

That stretch of Mount Auburn Road runs south from new Highway 74, ending a short distance from Silver Springs Road. The four-lane concrete street was paved last year at a cost of about $740,000, but isn't open to traffic.

Lester said the city expects to award a construction contract for the Southern Expressway extension in April. Construction could start in May and be completed by October.

Additional traffic signals will be installed at the Southern Expressway and Kingshighway intersection.

Once completed, Southern Expressway and its connecting streets of Mount Auburn and Lexington will make a loop around the city, connecting on the east with Sprigg Street.

The city expects to spend $2 million to improve Silver Springs Road. But that work won't be done until 2002 and 2003, Lester said.

The city plans to hire an engineering firm this year to draw up plans for widening the gravel section of Silver Springs Road, which starts at the northwest corner of the school district's property and winds its way south about 4,000 feet to South Kingshighway.

Lester said the south end of the road may be realigned, resulting in a new stretch of Silver Springs Road which would intersect with Kingshighway a short distance north of where it currently ends.

Traffic lights wanted

School officials would like to see the Missouri Department of Transportation install traffic lights at that intersection, but MoDOT District Engineer Scott Meyer said there might be insufficient traffic at that intersection to warrant signals.

Meyer suggested that most students and teachers will be heading north, making the use of Southern Expressway and Mount Auburn Road more practical.

The schools plan to have an entrance and exit on Southern Expressway as well as the front drive off Silver Springs Road.

The city plans to construct a four-lane, concrete road in 2002 to replace the gravel section of Silver Springs Road. A fifth lane would be included as a turn lane in front of the schools, the city engineer said.

Construction, right of way and design costs could total $1 million, Lester said.

A similar cost is projected for the stretch of Silver Springs Road from Highway 74 to where it will connect to Southern Expressway and Mount Auburn Road, a distance of nearly 4,000 feet.

Street lights will be installed along the improved roads, he said.