DEMOLITION BEGINS FOR NEW ROUTE; FIRST HOUSE COMES DOWN ON COLLEGE

Demolition of buildings along the planned Mississippi River bridge route in Cape Girardeau began Friday with the razing of a vacated house at 714 College.

Werner Brothers of Herculaneum is the contractor for demolition of 54 buildings, mostly houses, at a cost of $211,573.

The first phase of demolition involves the razing of about 27 structures over the next two months, said Larry Rohr, design engineer with the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department in Sikeston.

"Then we have another group that we are anticipating to be ready (for demolition) after Nov. 1, and that consists of seven buildings in the area of West End Boulevard, Commercial Street and South Benton," said Rohr.

The contractor is required to remove all the debris from the demolition sites, he said.

"They just knocked down one house," said Ron Robertson, construction inspector with the highway department's Jackson office.

He said the debris will be hauled to a landfill.

Robertson said it appears the contractor will be demolishing about one house a day or one house every two days for now.

Demolition of the first house, excluding hauling away all of the debris, took about six hours, he said.

Some residents who live near the boarded up buildings that the state has purchased have indicated they're ready for the boarded up structures to be removed.

Leroy Nunn, District 10 right-of-way acquisition agent, shares such sentiments. "I think we are all anxious to get that done because, to be honest with you, it would make that area look better since the houses are vacant."

Nunn said that about 80 of the 132 parcels along the bridge route right of way have been purchased.

"It's really been going well for us," he said. "We had one person who came in Wednesday (at the Cape Girardeau office) and said he really liked where he had been moved.

"The biggest portion of these folks, I think, are well satisfied," he said.