Options for William St. project to be presented Wednesday

The city of Cape Girardeau is prepared to unveil two options for a newly designed William Street corridor.

Planning for an aesthetically improved corridor is in the early stages and being paid for from the city's Transportation Trust Fund, which is funded by a voter-approved half-cent sales tax.

The project, if built, would span the length of William Street for about two miles from Main Street to Kingshighway.

The city has set a meeting 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Osage Centre, where city staff and consultants will present the options to the public.

In the first option, landscaping, including medians with plantings, would be added from Kingshighway to Sheridan Drive and a similar transitional area would be built from Sheridan Drive to Louis Street. At that point, the four-lane street would be reduced to two lanes with a center turning lane combined with a center median with plantings. Along the length of the entire street, landscaping, a sidewalk on the south side of the street and a wide, multipurpose lane on the north side of the street for walking and biking would be built.

In the second option, the plan is basically the same, but most of the area of the street downsized into two lanes would contain only a two-way turning lane in the center of the street and no planted median.

Jake Garrard, a city engineer and the project manager, said vehicle counts by the consultant who came up with the concepts show the number of lanes on William Street can likely be reduced in some areas without an adverse effect on traffic flow.

"At certain times, there is more demand than others. But for most of the day, it's pretty empty along William Street," Garrard said.

People familiar with the Broadway Corridor Improvement Project completed in October 2012 will see similarities in the William Street ideas. The Broadway project included a new street overlay, decorative enhancements such colored-concrete in surfaces, new lighting, trees and other plantings, a promenade sidewalk on one side and added benches, signage, bicycle racks and trash cans.

But there will be a noticeable main difference in the style of the two projects, Garrard said.

"This isn't going to be a destination, like Broadway is," Garrard said. "We aren't trying to get people to stay right there. We are trying to make it an easier means for pedestrians to get from the east to the west or the west to the east."

The street has a sidewalk only on the south side in some areas, and a large area is primarily residential. The area of William Street that passes the Town Plaza and meets Kingshighway would be left four lanes with a turning lane to make businesses accessible for larger traffic volumes, Garrard said.

A comprehensive plan for the city that covers 2008 to 2028 identifies enhancements along William Street as "the most important infrastructure recommendation within the 'core city section'" of Cape Girardeau because the street provides a vital main route to the downtown business district.

Voters would have to approve funding the project by renewing the city's half-cent sales tax for transportation projects because the project is included on a fifth Transportation Trust Fund, or TTF, project list. That vote is expected in 2015. Only the design for the project is funded now with TTF 4 funds that were approved by voters in 2010.

Garrard said the city hopes to receive public input at the open house-style meeting Wednesday. An online survey on the William Street design options also has been posted on the city's website at cityofcapegirardeau.org.

eragan@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

William Street, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

1625 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, Mo.