BRIDGE ACCESS DIVIDES SEMINARY SITE

Its completion years away, Highway 74 already is a fixture on the St. Vincent's seminary property.

A tall roadbed lies south of the seminary buildings, cutting off views of the Mississippi River from some angles. A few acres of tall grass and cattails lie on the other side, divided from the rest of the land by Missouri Highway Department right of way.

It's the last leg of Highway 74, stretching from Sprigg Street to a planned bridge. The section will affect Cape Girardeau's plans for Lorimier Street, Morgan Oak and possibly a new park.

The Highway Department will leave a concrete "stub" on Highway 74 for the Lorimier Street access, said Barry Horst, design engineer. The site is about 550 feet from the new bridge. There won't be any traffic signals, and it will be up to the city to connect Lorimier.

Plans call for the bridge route and Lorimier to have a "T" intersection with turn lanes allowing only right turns off the bridge route onto Lorimier. Eastbound traffic on the bridge route won't be able to exit on Lorimier.

The city's capital improvements plan shows the Lorimier extension slated for 1999-2000 at a cost of $237,000. It will wind through the seminary property -- starting where the driveway is now -- cutting off a few acres on the west side of the seminary property.

City Manager Mike Miller said the extension isn't a sure thing and might be taken off the plan. Without Lorimier, people coming from Illinois on Highway 74 would have to drive to Sprigg and then back toward the river.

If the extension stays on the plan, the city will have to buy right of way from the seminary property's owner, Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation Inc. Officials want to buy another 16.5 acres of park land with federal grant money.

The city has applied for a $440,000 grant to purchase the land and would have to come up with $110,000 in matching funds. Colonial Cape would keep the buildings and a few acres.

Mayor Al Spradling III said he isn't concerned about how Highway 74 or Lorimier Street will split the property. The section south of Highway 74 isn't suitable for park development and simply will have to be maintained, he said. The split-off west side is too small of an area to be an issue, he said.

And the tall roadbed won't block too much of the view.

"It may block the view to the southeast a little, but I don't think it will too much," Spradling said. "If you are down on the low ground, it might block your view. I don't expect too many people will want to go down there."

Horst, the design engineer, said the roadbed can't be any lower. The bridge must be tall enough to accommodate boats, even during high water. That means a roadbed that gradually elevates as it approaches the river.

Although city officials have plans for Lorimier and a new park on the seminary property, Morgan Oak's future is unclear. It connects to a bridge that will be torn down, perhaps in the next decade.

Acting City Engineer Mark Lester said projects were far enough in the future to be researched thoroughly before decisions are made.

"I have no idea what will happen to Morgan Oak," he said. "They figure the new bridge will be done in 2005. I could speculate on all that, but it's really too early to tell."