Road district engineer gives Cape City Council update on overlay, bridge projects

Plans to lay 8.9 miles of asphalt overlay in the coming year were presented at Monday night’s Cape Girardeau City Council meeting.

District engineer Mark Phillips represented the Cape Special Road District and gave city councilmembers updates on ongoing projects within the southeast quadrant of Cape Girardeau County.

The district services a 98-mile area of roadways, including 9 miles of roads within city limits and 32 bridges on the national bridge inventory.

The Cape Special Road District was formed in 1912, Phillips said, and is currently governed by a three-member board — Jon Kasten, Rob Erlbacher and Steve Obermann.

The district is solely funded by Proposition 1, which passed in 2006 and raised the sales tax in Cape Girardeau County by one-half of 1 percent. Revenue generated by the tax is split among the district, the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department and the Cape Girardeau County Road and Bridge Department.

In 2020, the tax is expected to generate about $2.1 million for the Cape Special Road District to maintain bridges and roads, according to Phillips.

Since 2006, about $5 million has been spent on the Cape Special Road District’s asphalt overlay program and averaged about 7 miles annually.

Phillips that said when he joined the Cape Special Road District, the bridges were in “pretty poor condition” and he was hired to focus on the district’s bridge replacement program. The district engineer had worked previously at the Missouri Department of Transportation, where he gained experience working with and maintaining bridges.

Since coming on board, Cape Special Road District has spent more than $3.5 million and replaced 11 bridges or box culverts, focusing primarily on bridges with timber substructures, he said.

Most recently, Phillips said, the district completed a bridge project on County Road 651 near Egypt Mills, in the northeast corner of the district’s service area. The $600,000 project involved raising a 140-foot-long structure near the Mississippi River floodplain from 42 feet to 48 feet.

About six bridges in the district are identified as in need of replacing, Phillips said, with two timber bridges remaining in the district. In 2008, there were about a dozen timber bridges, he said.

“We have a lot of structures that are either low-posted or very narrow — so they’re not necessarily structurally-deficient, but they are functionally obsolete bridges,” Phillips said.

One potential project in the next year or two, Phillips said, includes replacing a box culvert on Old Sprigg Street Road between Lexington Avenue and Bertling Street.

Phillips said about 5 miles of gravel roads in the district remain in need of paving, including about 1.5 miles of gravel along County Road 203 behind Notre Dame Regional High School, which could be completed before the end of the year.