Cape preparing project list for road tax extension

Cape Girardeau city officials hope to convince voters next year to extend the half-cent transportation sales tax for another five years to finance a new set of road construction projects that is expected to include the extension of Fountain Street as a gateway to the city's downtown.

A committee of the Planning and Zoning Commission has been reviewing possible road projects for the past six months in an effort to decide what projects should be funded with the proposed tax extension. Nothing has been finalized, city officials said.

The Fountain Street project, estimated to cost more than $1 million, would extend Fountain Street from Morgan Oak to William Street. The street, constructed with brick-like paving stones, currently runs one block from the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge to Morgan Oak. The street borders the site of Southeast Missouri State University's planned River Campus arts school.

The exact route for the extension of the new Fountain Street hasn't been determined yet, city officials said. An engineering firm is currently looking at possible routes through that neighborhood.

The city's planning committee is on its third draft of possible projects. Ten projects are currently on the list. Besides the Fountain Street extension, other possible projects include construction of two new roads:

Coker Road would begin at Route W, run through the Southeast Missouri State University farm and connect to the new East Main Street interchange at Interstate 55 that the Missouri Department of Transportation plans to build within the next two years.

Vantage Drive would run south from Kingshighway to Hopper Road on the east side of I-55.

The committee also is looking at possible improvements to New Madrid Street, Bloomfield Road, North Main Street, Sprigg Street, Bend Road, Mount Auburn Road and the intersection of Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive.

Committee chairman Harry Rediger said he expects the committee will make a formal recommendation to the full Planning and Zoning Commission early next year. The commission then would approve a list of projects to recommend to the Cape Girardeau City Council.

The ultimate decision will rest with the council, which is expected to have a final list of road projects to promise voters before putting the tax issue on the ballot.

City planner Kent Bratton said the tax issue likely would be submitted to voters in August 2005.

$20 million over five years

Voters approved the first transportation sales tax to fund road improvements in August 1995 and extended it another five years in August 2000.

The current tax expires on Dec. 31, 2005. If extended, the tax would run through 2010.

Rediger said it's important not to rush the selection of projects.

"The earlier we start, the better off we will be," he said. "We can fine-tune it more."

Bratton said the proposed sales tax would generate an estimated $20 million for road projects over five years.

As with the current transportation sales tax, the money would go in a trust fund.

So far, projects have been built as the city has had enough money in the fund to pay for them. Bratton doesn't expect any change in the pay-as-you-go philosophy, although the city council legally could issue bonds to fund projects and retire those bonds with sales tax money.

Mayor Jay Knudtson said the council can't use transportation sales tax money to fund critical equipment and operating needs in the police and fire departments. The city council is asking voters next Tuesday to approve a quarter-cent sales tax to help fund the public safety needs.

Knudtson said the council will hold a public hearing for residents to comment on the list of road projects before putting any tax extension measure on the ballot.

As currently planned, street and sidewalk repairs and routine paving work would continue to be funded with transportation trust fund money. That work is expected to cost over $5.8 million over five years.

That would leave a little over $14 million for specific road projects.

Could be in phases

But factoring in some money for contingencies, Bratton said city officials likely will have to cut out some of the 10 suggested projects or scale back the projects by doing them in phases.

"It's always a balancing act," he said.

Take Coker Road, for example. The proposed project now on the drawing board calls for construction of a two-lane road from the new I-55 interchange to Route W at a cost of more than $3 million, the most expensive project of the 10 being considered.

But Bratton said the new street could be done in stages with the first phase involving construction of the street from I-55 to County Road 618.

Bratton said it's proposed that the east-west street in the future would extend all the way from I-55 to Highway 177 on the city's north edge.

Bratton suggested the new city street be named after a geographical feature, Coker Knob, a hill near Highway 177.

Where traffic backs up

Rediger's committee also is looking at possible improvements to the Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive intersection, where traffic routinely backs up on northbound Kingshighway during busy commute times.

The project would involve adding a free-flow right-turn lane and possibly reworking the entrance to Arena Park, including relocating where the entrance road connects to Broadview Street, in an effort to avoid traffic tie-ups.

Also on the drawing board is improving Bloomfield Road from Stonebridge Drive to Benton Hill Road. That work would extend the widening improvements already taking place on Bloomfield Road west of I-55.

The Sprigg Street project would involve widening one of the city's major north-south streets from Independence to Highway 74, the new bridge route.

Mount Auburn Road would be improved from Independence to Kingshighway. Bratton said widening the street at the Kingshighway intersection to alleviate traffic backup would be included in that project.

Big Bend Road improvements would run from Bertling to Main Street and include replacement of the bridge over Sloan Creek, Bratton said.

Proposed improvements to North Main Street from Roberts Street to Cape Rock Drive might be dropped from the project list to stay within the proposed transportation trust fund budget, Bratton said.

But Rediger said his committee plans to include a number of alternate projects on its list that could be funded if other sources of funding, such as federal grants, are obtained to pay for some of the higher priority projects.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123