TREES WILL LINE PART OF SHAWNEE PARKWAY

There's nothing as lovely as a tree -- unless perhaps a whole bunch of trees planted along a state highway.

The Missouri Transportation Department plans to spend $28,801 to plant 180 trees along two stretches of Highway 74 (Shawnee Parkway) in Cape Girardeau. The area extends just over half a mile.

The Missouri Highway Commission this week awarded the tree-planting contract to Hillside Gardens Inc. of Foley.

Bob Wilson, resident engineer with the MoDOT office in Jackson, said trees will be planted on the north side of the highway between Interstate 55 and Silver Springs Road and on both sides of the road between Silver Springs and Kingshighway.

Wilson said the trees will provide a natural sound and visual barrier between the highway traffic and residents of a mobile-home park and the Chesley Drive neighborhood.

The contractor will plant a variety of trees, including red maple, green ash, bald cypress, river birch, service berry and white pine.

Hillside Gardens is expected to plant the trees this spring, possibly as early as March. The state will maintain the trees.

MoDOT received federal funding for the project. The funding comes from an enhancement grant that is earmarked for improvements that go beyond normal elements of a transportation project, highway officials said.

Such projects can include hiking and bicycle trails, landscaping, bridge lighting and even renovation of historic structures such as railroad depots.

Wilson said this is the first tree-planing project of this kind in the highway department's District 10 of Southeast Missouri. He predicted there will be more projects like it in Southeast Missouri.

"You can't have too many trees," he said.

Scott Meyer, MoDOT District 10 engineer, said the money being spent on the tree-planting project won't cut into the budget for road and bridge improvements in Southeast Missouri.

"We want people to understand this money was earmarked for enhancement. It can't be used for regular roadway improvements," said Meyer.

Steve Duke, transportation planning coordinator at MoDOT's Sikeston office, said about $800,000 a year is budgeted for enhancement projects in Southeast Missouri. Most of the money in the past has gone to pedestrian and bicycle trails, he said.

Money also has gone toward restoration of a historic railroad depot in Poplar Bluff.

If local government agencies sponsor a project, they must provide a local match of at least 20 percent of the cost. No local match was required for the tree plantings because MoDOT was the sponsor, Duke said.

Federal funding for enhancement projects in Missouri is awarded by the state's 10-member selection committee in Jefferson City on the basis of a priority point system.

Duke said the federal government has funded transportation enhancement projects since 1991.