West End improvements set to begin at end of July

Improvements to North West End Boulevard are set to begin later this month, according to a news release from the City of Cape Girardeau.

North West End Boulevard between Rose and Bertling streets -- just north of Capaha Park -- will be improved by Fronabager Concreters. The Oak Ridge-based contractors will be adding sidewalks, making stormwater drainage improvements and widening the street.

The project is a combination of multiple planned improvements to West End which will total $4.6 million in improvements. Initial construction cost proposed in 2015 was $2.5 million, with the scope of the project stretching from Bertling to New Madrid Street. However, the decision was made to combine the project with $650,000 in improvements from Rose to New Madrid approved by voters in 2010.

When engineers began working on the project, they discovered a need to replace the sanitary sewer system and make more extensive improvements to the stormwater system, Nicolette Brennan, the city's public information officer, said.

The construction will use $650,000 and $2.95 million from the fourth and fifth iterations of the Transportation Trust Fund Tax -- a half cent sales tax approved by voters every five years in Cape Girardeau since 1995. The construction will also leverage $400,000 from sewer funds and $600,000 from the Parks, Recreation and Stormwater Tax 2 -- a half-cent sales tax renewed by voters in 2019.