STREET IMPROVEMENTS: DOWNTOWN PROJECTS NUMEROUS

Cape Girardeau motorists traveling downtown have seen scenic streets turned into obstacle courses loaded with rough roads, detour signs and a slew of orange construction cones.

A number of paving and curbing projects are under way along streets in the city's older northeast and downtown areas. The majority of the work is taking place between Washington and Normal streets south to Themis between the river and West End Boulevard.

The paving projects are being completed in addition to four major projects taking place farther west on Broadway and on Hopper, Silver Springs and Mount Auburn roads.

Workers must pull up some two inches of eroding asphalt prior to laying new asphalt in the paving projects. The work must be done between late spring and early fall to get optimal results, said City Engineer Mark Lester.

"Asphalt has to be at a certain temperature to be put down. If it gets too cold it just won't work," said Lester.

In some areas like a portion of Sprigg Street between Broadway and Bellevue, the entire street will be blocked off while the repaving process takes place.

In others, such as along Pacific between Broadway and North streets, only patches of the road are being repaved.

"I know it's been an inconvenience to everybody, but that's just the way it has to be," said Keith Richard, a paving foreman with Apex Paving Co. of Sikeston, Mo., which is completing much of the paving work. "We tried to scatter it out so you don't have big sections of a neighborhood blocked off at one time."

Lester said the visible signs of road work are inconvenient to motorists but may be just what voters need Tuesday to approve a five-year extension of the half-cent transportation fund tax that is funding the road improvements.

"I would think that that would help simply by the fact that we are doing what we promised to do," Lester said. "The commitment we made to taxpayers with the previous tax, we're doing it."

The Transportation Trust Fund is a half-cent sales tax that was approved in 1995. The tax is set to expire Dec. 31. Revenue from the tax has been used to fund 20 transportation projects in the city, including paving gravel streets, widening roadways and adding sidewalks.

A tax extension would generate enough revenue to fund $20 million in proposed projects over the next five years.

Annette Emmons, manager at A Touch of Grace, 117-119 Themis, said crews have been working at the corner of Themis and Spanish streets all week. Customers have complained about the lack of parking caused by the road work, "but parking downtown is difficult anyway," she said.

"They're really nice, and they even came in here to have lunch," said Emmons. "They seem to be working really hard to get it done. They're trying at least to make it bearable for us.".