Cape city officials open improved Silver Springs Road

Cape Girardeau city officials opened a newly paved, realigned and widened stretch of Silver Springs Road to traffic Friday on a route that long ago was little more than dirt.

"This was a mud road," said Olive Keller, whose father, F.J. Armstrong, had operated a dairy farm on the adjacent land. Armstrong named the road after two springs on his farm, Keller said. She attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday marking the opening of the improved street.

Keller said her family came to the Silver Springs area in 1925. Family and friends eventually put gravel on the road. Later, it was turned into an asphalt street.

The latest improvement has resulted in a new 36-foot-wide concrete street, with curbs and sidewalks. Still surrounded by farmland, the improved section of Silver Springs Road extends from Highway 74 to Mount Auburn Road near the new Cape Girardeau Central High School.

The city spent nearly $384,000 on the road improvements, funded with money from the transportation sales tax. Lappe Cement Finishing Inc. was the contractor on the project, which began last fall.