Cape officials redesigning Lewis and Clark Parkway as two lanes to save money

As Cape Girardeau city officials look for ways to save money, one promising place for savings is to scale back the Lewis and Clark Parkway, the road that will connect Center Junction with LaSalle Avenue near the new Interstate 55 interchange.

Originally planned as a four-lane road that would be built in three phases, officials are redesigning the first stretch to be a two-lane road except for the part immediately adjacent to LaSalle Avenue.

Meanwhile, as the budget work goes on, little work is being done on LaSalle Avenue due to repeated weather delays, city engineer Kelly Green said. Regular rains have kept the soil too wet to prepare for pouring concrete, she said.

"One of the problems we have is all the new dirt," Green said. "The contractor cut and filled certain areas and the contractor can't get equipment out there until the dirt dries."

Additional rains overnight Wednesday didn't help, she added.

A paving machine sits on LaSalle Avenue east of Interstate 55 in Cape Girardeau on Thursday. (Kit Doyle)

Cape Girardeau faces a budget shortfall of up to $660,000 in its general fund during the year beginning July 1. City officials have identifed about $495,000 in cuts.

Another way city officials will find money for the general fund is to change the way it spends money in restricted accounts. The city collects payments for water, sewer and trash service. In the past, that money was spent only to directly support those services. In the new budget, the city plans to charge those accounts for administrative services such as human resources and the finance department.

For the same reasons, making the Lewis and Clark Parkway a two-lane road can help the general fund. By not spending dedicated road funds for the parkway, the city can use the money to replace general fund dollars in the street maintenance budget, city finance director John Richbourg said.

The fund shift would be a one-time move, he said. Richbourg is looking for money to replenish the city's depleted operating reserves and expects he can put $200,000 in that savings account.

"The only way we would use it is to use it as a method to replenish our unreserved fund balance," Richbourg said. "We are looking at it as a one-year deal."

The city has funding in hand only for the the first phase of the Lewis and Clark Parkway. As a long-term road plan is developed for submission to voters next year, the other two phases are being considered for inclusion.

The first phase would run from the intersection of County Road 618 and County Road 620 north to the new interchange. It was originally projected to cost $3.24 million. Of that amount, $1.2 million will come from the earmarked appropriation for the interchange that serves Jackson's East Main Street and Cape Girardeau's LaSalle Avenune. The city also won a $1.1 million federal Surface Transportation Program-Urban grant to finance construction.

The federal grant requires a 20 percent local match, or about $275,000. The city will find that money in the regular distributions of state gas taxes, which brings about $1.3 million annually.

Each year, the city puts about $970,000 in gas tax distributions into the road maintenance budget. The rest is set aside for construction projects. Cape Girardeau officials were planning on taking $600,000 over two years from the projects fund to make up the difference. With a two-lane road, that money won't be needed, allowing general fund money to be cut in the maintenance budget in favor of gas tax distributions, Richbourg said.

Not hard to widen

Green, the city engineer, said widening the Lewis and Clark Parkway -- or LaSalle Avenue, also being built as a two-lane road from Route W to the new interchange -- will not be a difficult engineering job when traffic demands it.

For the Lewis and Clark Parkway, "we will build down the center of the right of way and add a lane to either side when we are ready."

At LaSalle Avenue, to match the road to Jackson's median-divided boulevard design on East Main Street, the city will build the two lanes south of the median, then add the two on the north side when traffic builds.

When dry weather returns, Green said, residents watching for progress on LaSalle Avenue will see fast work. The contract promises that the concrete roadway can be poured in a two- to three-week period, followed by sidewalk installation and other finishing work. She hopes motorists will use the road in early summer.

The right of way for the Lewis and Clark Parkway has not been acquired, but most of the path goes across property owned by the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation. "We still hope to go to bid this winter," Green said. "Depending on what kind of winter we have will determine when the contractor can start."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

http://www.cityofcapegirardeau.org/

Pertinent addresses:

Interstate 55, Cape Girardeau, MO

LaSalle Avenue, Cape Girardeau, MO