PERRYVILLE -- Billie Mills loves Perryville and over the last year and a half she's seen houses she hadn't seen in years. That's because St. Joseph Street -- Perryville's main drag and its only through street going east and west -- has been under construction since the beginning of last summer.

So Mills and everybody else in town have been taking detours to avoid the construction sites and rough spots in the pavement.

For a week, motorists going through Perryville have enjoyed the simple pleasure of driving on a smooth surface of eight-inch thick concrete with no detours.

Except for three small retaining walls, construction workers have finished the 1.1-mile stretch of St. Joseph Street from Highway 51 to Main Street.

Until Missouri built the current Highway 51, that state highway followed St. Joseph and Main streets. When the city took it over, the street was a patchwork of asphalt and concrete, with curbs and gutters in some places and not in others, said Craig Lindsley, Perryville's city administrator.

In addition, the city-owned natural-gas and water utilities needed to replace aging cast-iron pipes under St. Joseph with more durable plastic pipes, Lindsley said.

So the city spent last summer replacing those utility lines.

Southwestern Bell, Citizens Electric and Falcon Cable TV replaced their electric lines at the same time. Southwestern Bell and Falcon buried their lines while Citizens Electric replaced the old wooden utility poles with modern metal poles, Lindsley said.

Modern streetlights stretch out from the new poles over the street, providing more light than the old ones.

When Perryville replaces utility lines under streets, it normally covers them with a temporary pavement, said Ken Baer, the city engineer. It was more noticeable this time, he said, because the heavier traffic wore it down more quickly.

This summer, the city installed the 38-foot-wide pavement, five feet wider than the old one, Lindsley said. He expects the new pavement will last 50 years.

"It's smooth, like walking on a baby's back," said Perryville resident Palmer Lohmann.

"It would have been nice if they did it all at once," said his friend Jeff Weibrecht.

Lindsley said the city spent about $1.2 million on the project, including $400,000 for utility work. The city hasn't made its final calculations, but Lindsley estimated that the city will assess property owners about $200,000 for the curb and gutter improvements.

The three utility companies spent their own money on their improvements.

Police have stepped up patrols on the street over the last week to guard against speeders, said Det. Keith Tarrillion of the Perryville Police Department. Teenagers are back to cruising St. Joseph, he said, but he hasn't experienced any trouble.

He said the improved street has allowed police cars and other emergency vehicles to reduce their response times.

Mills, a retired school teacher who studies the town's history said St. Joseph was the first street built in the town. So Perryville's oldest street is now its newest.