STREET PROJECT EVOLVES; LEXINGTON SLOWED BUT STILL ON TRACK

It's a mess now, but it won't be long before the Lexington Avenue arterial is extended in north Cape Girardeau.

Nip Kelley Equipment Co. Inc., the contractor for the short segment of the street between Perryville Road and Concord Place, today should complete storm sewer work and begin grading the tract.

City Engineer J. Kensey Russell said Thursday the section will be completed this fall.

The drainage work included the installation of six storm-water catch basins and the lowering of utility lines in the area of Concord Place. The grade of that street must be lowered to align with Lexington.

"We've lowered a water line and Union Electric's been lowering a gas line in the area of Concord Place," Russell said. "That work is complete, so I anticipate he'll be getting into his excavation a little heavier now."

Vince Kelley of Nip Kelley Equipment and the foreman on the job said that once the storm sewer work is done, workers can start the major excavation work.

The short existing stretch of Lexington from Cape Rock east was widened from 30 feet to 36 feet earlier this year, and Russell said initial plans called for new pavement first at Concord Place and existing Lexington.

But Kelley said the plans have changed due to delays in the area of Concord Place, where it took longer than expected to lower the utilities.

"UE lowered the gas line five to six weeks ago, and the city had another contractor lowering the water line," he said. "He just got out of there Tuesday or Wednesday."

But Kelley said the water lines have to be tested before taps to the houses along the route can be installed. The testing will take at least two weeks.

"It will probably be two to three weeks before we can get up in that area and start moving some dirt," he said. "Our initial plan was to do Concord and existing Lexington first, but it looks like now we'll be starting at Perryville Road and getting the excavation done and work the opposite way."

Kelley said he was unable to wait for the water tests to come back with a deadline looming in late September.

"We're going to try our best to meet that," he added. "If we don't get a lot of wet weather, we're going to be real close.

The actual paving work will be done by a subcontractor, Lappe Cement Finishing Co., and should start soon.

"We were just talking about it today, and I think in six to seven days we can have the biggest majority of the excavation work done, excluding what's got to be done on Concord and existing Lexington," he said. "I think by the end of August you'll see some paving up there."

Russell said the project east of Perryville Road has progressed "a little slower than I might have wished," but he conceded Kelley has faced snags.

"There are no problems with any of the work, it's just gone a little slower than we would have liked," he said.

What also has gone slower than expected is negotiation for right of way needed to enable the city to bid out the next major section of the route from Cape Rock Drive east to Old Sprigg Street Road at Melody Lane.

In January, City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said he hoped the negotiations with the family who owns the property would be completed in the spring.

But Russell said those dealings still aren't completed.

"We're about to come to completion of contract negotiations with them for rights of way, which would let us put together a contract," he said.

Melody Lane, now a gravel road, essentially will be the corridor for the extension of Lexington to Highway 177. That section, along with a corresponding northern extension of Sprigg Street from Bertling to Lexington, is expected to open for development a large tract of property in north Cape Girardeau.

As soon as Lexington is connected with Old Sprigg Street Road, city officials hope to quickly finalize plans for the extension of Sprigg Street from Bertling to Lexington. Old Sprigg Street Road runs northwest from Bertling, beginning at a point west of the Sprigg Street and Bertling intersection.

The area east of Sprigg Road along Melody Lane is largely rural, undeveloped property. But Fischer said it is in the city limits and zoned for residential development.

Russell said the engineering design for the entire project complete to Highway 177 is finished and awaits only right-of-way acquisition before contracts may be let. The entire $4 million arterial project is slated for completion in 1994.