A streetwork orange - It's construction season

With warm weather and spring rains come the beauty of blossoms, lawns that need to be mowed, more outdoor activities -- and orange barrels, cones and barricades on our streets and highways.

Yes, its time for street work. Main Street in downtown Cape Girardeau is being dug up to install new gas mains. Work is about to start on new streets to serve the new Central High School and the Career and Technology Center. Other streets projects funded by the city's Transportation Trust Fund will be sprouting up all over the city. Work continues on the Diversion Channel bridge that serves I-55 traffic between Cape Girardeau and Scott City.

It easy to get frustrated when detours and one-way traffic interrupt our lives. But the rewards are worth the disruptions. In recent years, Cape Girardeau has seen an enormous amount of improvements to streets, sewers and water lines.

Orange, it turns out, is the color of a healthy, growing, progressive community.