CITY TO START ON PERRYVILLE ROAD

When voters approved Cape Girardeau's half-cent transportation sales tax in 1995, Perryville Road was at the top of the list for improvement.

On Monday city officials gathered to mark the official start of the Perryville Road project.

Mayor Al Spradling III called the groundbreaking "the kick-off of what I feel was the reason for the Transportation Trust Fund."

When the city sought input from residents on transportation needs, "Perryville Road was the No. 1 major project that the public felt needed to be done," Spradling said.

As work gets under way on the project, he said, voters "will be able to see what their money was going for. This is a city project they voted for. They wanted us to do this project, and we are now proceeding with this project."

The road is curvy and narrow in places, and it is hard to see oncoming or crossing traffic in some places.

"I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind that Perryville Road needs to be brought up to standard," Spradling said.

The $1.7 million project, which covers a one-mile stretch from Meyer Drive to the city limits, calls for widening Perryville Road to 36 feet, adding sidewalks, improving sight distance at intersections, providing safer turning on and off the road from residential streets and improving drainage.

The work should be completed by late December -- "hopefully sooner, guys," said city engineer Mark Lester.

The Perryville Road project was originally slated to be finished by now. But incorporating residents' suggestions into the project design and problems with land acquisition delayed the work, Lester said.

"The good thing about the delay, on the lighter side, is that these Transportation Trust Fund projects are pay-as-you-go," he said. "So it did allow us to accrue more money into the account."

The suggestions "ranged from don't disturb my roses to let's go around this 100-year-old tree to let's move the road farther east or farther west to just leave it alone," he said.

Cape Girardeau's north side is probably the fastest-growing area of the city, Spradling said.

"They need to have a good road, a safe road to where they live and where they work," he said. "This is the first step in the right direction, and I hope it's the first step in many directions" for the city's road improvement projects.

Perryville Road is the first of four major projects slated to be funded through the Transportation Trust Fund.

The other major projects are:

-- Widening Broadway from Clark to Perry Avenue, at an estimated cost of $942,000.

-- Widening Bloomfield Road from Kingshighway to Interstate 55, at an estimated cost of $964,700.

-- Extending Hopper Road from Kage to Mount Auburn, at an estimated cost of $600,000.

In addition, the Transportation Trust Fund also pays for the city's street overlay program, paving gravel streets, street, curb and gutter repair and sidewalk repair and construction.

The tax expires in 2000.

AT A GLANCE

Cape Girardeau has collected more than $5.8 million from a half-cent transportation sales tax passed by voters in 1995. That money combined with $250,000 worth of interest and $140,000 in fuel tax funds gives the city $6.2 million for street and road projects.

Funds spent or contracted through Nov. 30, 1997

Bloomfield Road phase II $256,798.12

Mount Auburn to Hwy. 74 $266,634.08

Bloomfield Road Phase I $2,986.05

Silver Springs (William to Independence) $47.97

Siemers Drive $35,000

New Madrid Road $19,828.56

Independence Street $14,693.07

Broadway widening $209,037.31

Hopper Road $50,077.17

Perryville Road $335,091.12

Street overlay program $459,632.51

Gravel street paving $244,590.07

Street, curb, gutter repair $386,226.65

"Road to Success" signs $1,860

Sidewalk repair $94,897.03

Other costs $4,918.03