DAMAGE: CITY PLANS TO REPAIR SOUTH SPRIGG STREET

Repairs to damaged sections of new pavement on South Sprigg Street near the Lone Star Cement Plant will begin next month, a Cape Girardeau Public Works Department official said Wednesday.

That will be good news for motorists who use South Sprigg and have been jolted by broken sections of pavement.

Public Works Director Doug Leslie said the work will include replacement of several sections of pavement that have been broken during the past few years by heavy vehicles crossing Sprigg near the cement plant's quarry entrance and near the old entrance to the cement plant.

In addition, two sections of pavement and curb and gutter that were destroyed or damaged by last week's derailment of a Burlington Northern freight train at the private railroad crossing owned by Lone Star will be replaced.

Assistant Public Works Director Kevin McMeel said about 200 feet of curb and gutter and a 500-square-foot and 30-square-foot slab of pavement on South Sprigg near the site of the derailment will also be replaced.

Leslie said the work will begin as soon as Lone Star completes work now under way at the old blue hole quarry. The company is moving large amounts of earth in large dump trucks across Sprigg Street from the quarry to a fill site near the Union Pacific Railroad tracks north of the cement plant.

When South Sprigg - from near Cape LaCroix Creek to a point south of the cement plant - was re-paved in 1985-86, Lone Star shared the cost of the paving with the city. The company paid to have reinforced slabs of pavement installed at the heavy equipment crossings.

McMeel said the city has been working with Lone Star on the latest repair project, now scheduled to begin in April.

"Lone Star will provide the materials (concrete and rock) and the city will provide the labor to do the work," he explained. "They realize their activity down there is responsible for the breakup of the pavement and have been very cooperative with the city in planning for the repairs to the street."

McMeel said the damaged area near the derailment site will be repaired first, then the bad sections of pavement north and south of the main gate of the cement plant will be repaired. He said the end result should be a much smoother ride for those who use South Sprigg in the vicinity of the cement plant.