Come on in

Southeast Missouri State University, so important to Cape Girardeau and the region, has always lacked a front door that says, "Come on in." It's in the works. The university is making plans to create a dramatic entrance to the campus at the Broadway-Henderson Avenue intersection in Cape Girardeau.

The plans coincide with a $2 million city project that will widen Broadway to four lanes from the current two from Perry Avenue east to Houck Place.

A center turn lane will be located in some places along the widened street, and the north side of the Henderson Avenue intersection with Broadway will be relocated just west of its current location.

The widening project will require demolishing two houses on the north side of Broadway east of West End Boulevard.

For its part, the university plans to place signage on green space to be created at the intersection. The gravel parking lot next to Houck Field House will be lowered and paved, providing more than 100 parking spaces with more spaces to be added east of Henderson Avenue in the future.

The university wants to see stoplights at the intersection, an idea questioned by the city because it is only two blocks from the Broadway-West End Boulevard intersection. No traffic signals are in the city's plans. The widening of Broadway from Henderson Avenue to Houck Place is scheduled to be bid out in February.