BOYD WEIGHS LOCATION TO NORTH

Boyd Gaming may settle on a new docking site farther north along the Cape Girardeau riverfront in an effort to secure approval from the Corps of Engineers.

"We discussed it and Boyd is taking another look at it," Corps official Mike Brazier said. Brazier heads the regulatory branch of the Corps' St. Louis District.

Boyd is seeking a docking permit from the Corps prior to applying for a state gambling permit for its proposed riverboat casino.

The Las Vegas gambling firm had been planning to dock its riverboat casino some 500 to 600 feet north of the Broadway floodgate.

"I think they are going to move it upstream a little more, maybe 150 feet or so," Brazier said.

He said the Corps was waiting for Boyd to submit design plans for the new site, and once that is done, a decision could come within two to three weeks.

Boyd began talking of a new docking site after Corps, Coast Guard and barge industry representatives conducted a safety test in Cape Girardeau March 1.

They marked the original docking site with buoys.

"We went upriver and downriver with a tow and 25 barges attached," Brazier said.

Following the test, a meeting was held in Cape Girardeau. Twenty-two people attended the meeting, including Boyd officials and consulting engineers.

Project architect Gary Wagoner of Memphis, Tenn., attended the meeting, but Wagoner declined to comment Thursday as to the possibility of a new docking site.

Participants at the March 1 meeting disagreed over whether the site would be safe if barges would break loose along a bend in the river. A site to the north would be safer, some said.

Brazier said Boyd Gaming also has talked about erecting a barrier of steel sheet piling filled with rock and sand. The barrier would be upstream from the docking site and protect the riverboat and docking area from runaway barges, he said.

Brazier added that the safety concerns don't appear insurmountable.

"There is no show stopper," he said, adding that the Corps would have to review design plans on how Boyd's $51.2 million development would extend over the flood wall.

The gambling development's lighting will have to meet Coast Guard requirements so it doesn't interfere with navigation of the river, Brazier said.