BRIDGE: VALUES OF HOMES ARE CONSIDERED

If the neighborhoods in south Cape Girardeau where the Mississippi River bridge route is to be built were lined with $100,000 homes, the bridge would likely be built somewhere else, state officials say.

Leroy Nunn of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department said state expenditures would be significantly higher than the $6 million relocation plan est~imate if the neighborhoods were upper-middle class and filled with new homes instead of older ones.

"A more elaborate neighborhood would be primarily owner-occupied and the cost to purchase that real estate would be much greater," Nunn said.

"We would, however, be looking at a lower assessment cost. It's easy to find the value of a three-year-old home," he said.

But there were other reasons the current bridge route was chosen.

Larry Rohr, engineering supervisor with the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department, said traffic studies done in the mid-1980s indicated building the bridge more than two blocks south of the existing bridge would not meet current highway needs.

"We found that generally people coming across the bridge were traveling to the mall or to Doctor's Park," Rohr said. "They weren't going to south Cape Girardeau."

A route north of the existing bridge was not considered because that area is much more developed than the south neighborhoods, he said.

"You've got the college there and Broadway, which is much more developed," he said.

A fork in the river further south of College Street would have meant a longer bridge and a higher construction cost, he said.

"The bottom line on a project like this is always the cost," Rohr said."

In addition to traffic surveys, studies on the environmental effects of building the highway, including if it would destroy parks, were done, he said.

"We even had to do noise studies on how this would affect the area," he said. "It's quite involved."

Public hearings were held in 1988 and 1989 on the proposed bridge route. That's when the College Street route was determined.

Other routes considered at the time would have connected with the current Highway 74, about 10 blocks south of the existing bridge.

"This was the route that was furthest north," he said. "We found people didn't want to go south, then have to turn around and go north again to get where they were going."

About 130 homes and businesses will be demolished to make way for the bridge and the connecting highway to Interstate 55. That means about 100 families will be relocated. Some have already moved.

Rohr estimated that if the neighborhoods along College Street were filled with newer homes, the cost to the state to relocate residents there would be as much as 20 times more.

The new highway to the interstate will be a limited-access highway. That means outlets will only exist on certain streets.

Proposed connections include Lorimier Street, Sprigg, West End Boulevard, Minnesota, Kingshighway, Silver Springs Road and Mount Auburn.

The highway will provide a direct route to west Cape Girardeau.

"I can't see it hurting the city," Rohr said. "In fact, the city encouraged a connection with Silver Springs Road and a future extension of Mount Auburn, both of which weren't originally planned. I think this will be a benefit to west Cape."

Nunn said the planned route runs through what is considered a depressed area. Real estate values are low.

"If you think about it," he said, "we're doing the city a favor."