FLOOD PROJECT: WORK AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

Mild, dry weather this summer has enabled the Cape LaCroix Creek-Walker Branch flood control project to proceed ahead of schedule, says Ken Eftink, Cape Girardeau's planning services coordinator.

The first segment of the project a joint effort by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city of Cape Girardeau involves construction of concrete and rip rap creek channel along Cape LaCroix Creek from just south of Bloomfield Road to Arena Park.

Eftink said the contractor, Dumey Excavating-Brenda Kay Construction, is well ahead of schedule on the project.

"Basically, the contractor is about 52 percent done with the project, and he's only used 43 percent of the time," he said. "We're well ahead of schedule right at the moment."

Eftink said the contractor should soon finish the concrete channel portion of the project from Bloomfield Road south.

The first section of the project includes improvements along a mile stretch of Cape LaCroix Creek. When that section's completed, Eftink said the city and Corps will bid out the first part of the Walker Branch segment from its confluence with Cape LaCroix to Broadway Street.

"We're finalizing some of the right-of-way for Walker Branch," he said. "We'll be advertising that in November, and we hope to award a contract in January and give the contractor notice to proceed with the work in February or March."

The Walker Branch section, although comparable in length to the current Cape LaCroix segment, includes several bridge replacements. Eftink said the bridge work will be staggered to lessen the impact on traffic.

Included in the first section of the Cape LaCroix project is replacement of the Bloomfield Road bridge, which will be coordinated with construction of an underpass for a hiking and bicycling trail.

Eftink said the bridge replacement likely will be completed by the end of October.

The eight-foot-wide recreational trail runs along Cape LaCroix Creek and beneath Independence, William, Kingshighway and Bloomfield. Earlier this year, some residents criticized the design of the trail because it narrows at the Independence and William underpasses.

Since then, the city and Corps have studied the feasibility of widening the trail at the remaining underpasses, and Eftink said the Bloomfield Road underpass now will be 10 feet wide.

"We've decided to widen the underpass and run it a little closer to the channel," he said. "We can save money by doing that, and should end up with a better product."

At Kingshighway, officials are looking to widen the underpass to eight feet.

"It looks as though it's going to be feasible," Eftink said. "What we haven't been able to determine is what that's going to cost."

On the south end of the project, city officials plan to connect the trail with Shawnee Park through Brink Street. "We consider that a temporary connection until the relocation of the new Route 74 is complete," Eftink said.

On the north end of the first segment of the trail, the city and Corps are studying ways to cross the creek at Arena Park.

Eftink urged people to stay off the trail until it's completed. He said that until then, the trail is a right-of-way for the contractor.

"Basically, if you're on the trail now you're trespassing, and it has created some problems for the contractor," he said.

Eftink said that at the rate the contractor is working, the trail should be completed and opened late next spring or early summer.

"We would like to coordinate finishing the recreation trail with the contractor finishing flood work so that it would all be done at the same time," he said.

The entire flood-control project, which could be completed by 1994, includes three miles of channel modifications on Cape LaCroix Creek and Walker Branch, construction of a 157-acre water-detention basin north of Cape Girardeau, and construction of a four-mile hiking and bicycling trail.