STREET PLAN: P&Z BACKS HOPPER, PERRYVILLE WORK

The Cape Girardeau Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday revised its list of priorities for five-year major street projects in the city.

While keeping the Lexington Avenue project and a Sprigg Street extension to the arterial at the top of the list, the commission added construction of a new Hopper Road from Mt. Auburn to Kage Road and improvements to Perryville Road.

The list will be included in a recommendation for the city's major street plan, which will be drafted next month and presented to the council along with a five-year capital improvements plan.

Assistant City Manager Al Stoverink said the Hopper Road project, which was removed from the five-year plan last year, will cost $600,000 to $700,000.

Improvements to Perryville Road are expected to cost about $750,000, he said.

But with increased funds available due to a new state transportation tax, Stoverink said the projects likely can be funded over five years.

He said he assumed Lexington, which already is funded, would remain the commission's "number one priority."

But Charles Haubold, the chairman of the commission, said: "If we think it is a top priority, we better voice that to the city council, because there are some people who don't think that way."

The commission kept Lexington and the Sprigg Street extension at the top of the list two street projects that they consider a "package."

"I don't think there's any doubt that we favor Lexington and the Sprigg Street extension all the way to its completion as number one," said commissioner Harry Rediger.

Stoverink said the work should be completed within 18 months. He said the commissioners needed to decide whether reconstruction of Perryville Road or Hopper Road should be put back in the plan.

Haubold and other commissioners said the Hopper Road improvement should be a higher priority because of rapid residential development in the area and a planned annexation of Twin Lakes, just west of Interstate 55 off Hopper.

Commissioner Tom Mogelnicki suggested that the project should be extended all the way to the interstate.

But Haubold said, "We don't want the second section holding up the first half of the project."

Stoverink also said that Hopper Road will be improved east of Mt. Auburn, with a new bridge over Cape LaCroix Creek, within three years. That work will be funded with federal money, he said.

The commission finally suggested the Perryville Road project remain in the list of priorities, ranked below Hopper.

The group recommended new construction for six projects and design work on three others. Other projects include:

Construction of connections to the planned Mississippi River bridge route.

A plan to widen to four lanes Broadway from Clark to Caruthers. The intersection of Clark and Broadway, where the street now narrows from four to two lanes, has one of the higher accident rates in the city.

Design of a project to widen and place curbs along Bloomfield Road west of Kingshighway.

Design of Hopper Road west of Kage Road.

Preliminary design on Vantage Drive, which runs parallel to I-55 on its east side.

Other street plans discussed by the commission include new construction of West End Boulevard to Lexington and of Silver Springs from Route K to Independence, widening of Broadway to Perry, and improvements to West End from Capaha Park to Bertling and south from William to Old Highway 74, New Madrid from Henderson to Perry, and North Main at the former site of the Florsheim Shoe Factory.

The city's major street plan last was updated in 1990, although the capital improvements plan is updated annually.

The street plan is comprised of major street projects for the next 20 years, although the top priorities are considered in the five-year capital improvements plan.