CITY ENTERS SIEMERS DRIVE AGREEMENT

The bottleneck of traffic at Siemers and Lambert drives might be enough to evoke feelings of road rage in some drivers, but it hasn't upset Dustin Gerstenschlager much.

Gerstenschlager, a Target employee, travels Siemers Drive every day to work. The four-way stop and amount of traffic isn't nearly as bad as what he encounters on Mount Auburn Road and Independence, he said. He seldom hears co-workers complain unless they get a speeding ticket on their way to work.

Widening Siemers Drive can only make things better, he said. "It gets busy but not when I'm coming to work at 8 a.m.," he said.

The congestion might not be as severe next Christmas shopping season thanks to an agreement that will widen Siemers Drive to 48 feet.

The Cape Girardeau City Council approved a resolution agreement Monday night that allows for the road to be widened from Campster Street to Bloomfield Road, an area of commercial and retail stores on the city's west side.

Motorists often have bemoaned the congestion along Siemers Drive, which is currently 32 feet wide. Under the agreement, the road will be built by Drury Southwest Inc., which will be reimbursed by the city through collection of the Transportation Trust Fund tax.

The half-cent sales tax was first approved in 1995 and then extended for another five years last August. The money collected by the tax is used only to fund major road and street improvements.

The city will benefit from the agreement because the work will be completed faster than what had been expected and at a somewhat lower cost, said City Manager Michael Miller. The project should begin late this summer and is expected to be finished by Thanksgiving at a cost close to $1 million.

Had the city waited to construct the road, the project likely wouldn't have started until next year. While there will be some disruption to traffic, the contractors will keep the road open to traffic for as long as possible, said Mark Lester, city engineer.

Drury Southwest will build the road, incurring the costs now to speed up the project. The property owners will pay for the cost of assessments for the first 8 feet of widening. The city will pay to widen the road from 40 feet to 48 feet.

The city has used other development agreements like this to finish projects ahead of schedule. The extension of South Mount Auburn Drive and the extension of Siemers Drive from Bloomfield Road to Highway 74 were other projects completed through development agreements with Drury Southwest. The Siemers Drive widening would be the third such agreement for the city, said Kent Bratton, planning services director.

All property owners are cooperating with the agreement, which means the work can be done quicker. Commercial property owners are assessed tax bills by the city to help pay for the work while residential property owners can waive those bills if all owners along the project donate right of way.