Winter's worth of work: Cape Girardeau hopes to expand river walk by late March

By April, if the weather is good over the winter, people who enjoy a stroll along the Cape Girardeau riverfront will have a longer path to tread.

The Cape Girardeau City Council last week chose Lappe Cement Finishing Inc. of Perryville, Mo., for a $435,000 contract to extend the river walk by almost a half-mile from its current terminus northward to Sloan Creek. The Missouri Department of Transportation has since signed off on the selection, city engineer Kelley Greene said, and a notice to begin work will be issued as soon as other paperwork is completed.

The contract gives Lappe 120 days to complete the project once the notice to begin is issued. If all goes well with the weather, company president Randy Lappe said, that means a completion date sometime in mid- to late March.

The project does not include a bridge over Sloan Creek to connect downtown with the Red Star boat landing maintained by the Missouri Department of Conservation. The money set aside for the project, a mix of 80 percent federal transportation enhancement funds and 20 percent city matching dollars, won't stretch that far, Greene said.

During a presentation last week on the progress of the DREAM Initiative in Cape Girardeau, the extended river walk was included in a map showing proposed enhancements for the downtown area. The map also showed an extension to the south.

When and how additional extensions will be funded will await more grants of transportation enhancement funds. Riverfront Park opened in 1984. The river walk was last expanded in 2004, when work expanded the walkway for 923 feet south from the Themis Street floodgate with steps to approach the river and 750 feet north from Broadway with benches and platform areas near the floodwall for viewing the river.

The new project will also include three park benches for enjoying the river view.

Working outside the Mississippi River floodwall will be the most challenging part of the job, Lappe said. Trucks carrying materials will use the Broadway floodgate, then move into position in reverse to drop their loads.

The job will include removing 1,000 square yards of riprap, the large rocks that form the erosion-control embankment, installing a fabric base and replacing the riprap. Another 640 tons of riprap will be put in place, along with 3,701 square yards of four-inch base rock and 3,701 square yards of seven-inch-thick reinforced concrete pavement.

When it comes time to pour the concrete, workers will prepare several hundred feet of the new river walk, back the truck to the worksite and then pump the concrete to the spot where it will be deposited, Lappe said.

"You can't go over from the outside because of the railroad and electrical lines," Lappe said. "We are going to have to bring everything in from the floodgate. A lot of the hard work will be placing the riprap and the fabric."

Rain or snow won't be the only weather issues the project will face. If temperatures are below freezing, work will stop because the rock base and riprap cannot be put in place on frozen ground, Lappe said.

And if rains to the north force the river up to flood stage, that would also force a delay in the construction timetable.

The job award comes at a good time, Lappe said. The slowdown in residential and commercial construction has cut into his company's business, he said.

"Right now with the way the economy is, there doesn't seem to be a lot of work out there for our bids," he said. "We are looking at these things as they come along. Other than the fact that getting the materials to the job site is a challenge, this is the kind of job we do all the time."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

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