CITY PAVES THE WAY TO BETTER STREETS; FIVE MILES RESUFACED DURING YEAR

In its third year, Cape Girardeau's 3-inch asphalt street overlay program already has paved three miles of gravel city streets, with two more miles of streets slated for work this year.

City Engineer J. Kensey Russell said the program is a cost-effective way to pave high-maintenance gravel streets, which benefits not only residents along the streets, but the entire city.

"I think that it has been a good positive program," Russell said. "Some of the streets we have done, I think that it has certainly enhanced those neighborhoods.

"Certainly, what we're trying to do in reducing maintenance and improving neighborhoods, I feel that's been successful.

"But the maintenance dollars we save, we're able to spend on other projects and use that money on streets that are more traveled, or just to fill more potholes."

As part of the program, established in 1988, the city paves one- or two-block sections of gravel streets at a cost not to exceed $10 per front foot. The cost of the street is tax billed to property owners along the route.

Russell said that only streets the city's engineering department estimates can be done for the $10-per-front-foot cost are included in the program.

"We did a little short piece of New Madrid, just off Clark Street and Forest Avenue, in 1988, as kind of a pilot project to see what it would actually cost us to do, and how the whole thing would go," he said.

"It went down well. We got it in under our $10 budget figure, and the people, for the most part, seemed to like it. So then we expanded it."

In 1989, the city paved about 5,800 feet of streets and in 1990, about 7,000 feet. Two projects this year will pave nearly two miles of gravel streets.

Russell said that when the program started, about 12 miles of city-maintained streets were gravel. After this year, that figure will be whittled to about seven miles.

Public Works Director Doug Leslie said most of the remaining seven miles of streets require fairly extensive maintenance work before the asphalt cap could be applied, and likely couldn't be paved within the $10-per-front-foot budget.

"That could include drainage work, widening of intersections, or work to build the base the kinds of things that are a little more than we can do with the program," Leslie said.

Russell said gravel streets are selected for the program using a set of criteria that include sufficient width, drainage and rock base to allow for the asphalt cap.

"We also tried to look at neighborhoods where it was unlikely a high quality street would ever be built," he said.

"It's not the equivalent of a high quality street. The idea was to cap existing gravel streets to reduce maintenance and help the neighborhood by eliminating dust and gravel that rolls off into people's yards, (and) give them a hard surface street."

Russell said the city solicited responses to the program from property owners along the streets, who ultimately would be saddled with the cost of the work.

"The first group of streets this year are those streets where we had the support of property owners," he said. "The second group are streets where we did not always have a positive response. There was some marginal response, where maybe only 30 percent of property owners were in favor or against the improvements."

Russell said the list of streets slated for work this year is a more ambitious one than in any previous year. He said the city has advertised for bids on the first group of streets and likely will be ready to bid the second group within the next few weeks.

The city engineer said the program apparently has been accepted by the property owners living on the newly paved streets.

"We haven't really heard from that many people," Russell said. "There have been a few places where we needed to go back and do a little fixing, where maybe a shoulder eroded before we got it stabilized, but I don't think there has been any major problems."

Russell said the city has been fortunate to be able to keep costs within the $10-maximum-front-foot figure during the past three years. He said that in 1989, most of the projects ran about $9 or $10 per front foot, which declined slightly last year.

"Last year, we had very good prices bid on asphalt material, which helped to keep costs down, and they probably ran around the $8 to $8.50 range," Russell said.

"That's why we've kept it at a maximum of $10 this year. If last year was a reflection, we thought we'd be able to maintain it this year."

Russell said one of the benefits of the program is that it reduces the Public Works Department's street-maintenance costs.

"Certainly, each mile less that they have to run a road grader on helps to reduce their cost," he said. "There will be some maintenance on the asphalt over time, but generally it's a lot less than what you have with the gravel streets."

Russell said the asphalt cap is expected to last 10 to 12 years before any reconstructive work would be needed.

"I think the one caution that I would raise is that folks need to understand this is not the same as a high-quality type street," he said. "Hopefully, their expectations are not going to be the same."

Leslie said the program has been a big help to the city's street maintenance crews.

"We have an awful lot of these gravel streets that are on hillsides, and the water tends to wash the gravel off and in some cases, actually will block the ditch and cause further erosion problems," he said. "The asphalt overlay program saves the constant grading of those streets.

"It definitely helps defer maintenance."