ROADBLOCKS SNAG CITY'S MOUNT AUBURN PROJECT

If everything had gone according to plan, all the work on Mount Auburn Road would be completed all at once. But not everything went according to plan.

The idea was to do the work widening Mount Auburn Road to four lanes between William and Independence and the waterline work at the Independence and Mount Auburn intersection at the same time.

The city is in the process of securing funding with the state revolving fund to pay for the waterline work. The revolving loan fund is a state program that gives municipalities low interest loans to do city improvements.

"Before the state got involved our intent was to do both projects at once," said Mark Lester, Cape Girardeau engineer.

Now the way it stands each project will be done separately and the one that is ready to go the earliest will be the one to get started first.

The Mount Auburn Road project is part of the Transportation Trust Fund, which is a list of 20 projects that are funded by a one-half-cent sales tax the city passed in 1995. Once it is complete Mount Auburn Road will be four lanes between William and Independence streets. Also there will be a stoplight at the Independence Street and Mount Auburn Road intersection.

Because of the stoplight, there will be turn lanes that will need to be added to the intersection, which means that the city needs another four to five feet of right-of-way at the intersection. The right-of-way is coming from the east side of the intersection.

The city does need some right-of-way on all four sides of the intersection. There are three property owners involved in the right-of-way issue. The design of the project is done, and the only thing left to do before construction can begin is to acquire the right-of-way.

"We are in the early stages," said Michael Miller, Cape Girardeau city manager. "They (the property owners) have a lot of questions. That is the stage we are in. No one has gone out there and made any offers."

Once the right-of-way is secured, the construction on Mount Auburn Road will take about six to eight months. Lester said he expects there to be two-lane traffic on Mount Auburn during the construction.

He said the waterline work will not bother traffic much at all. and unlike the Mount Auburn project, the waterline work will not require the same kind of right-of-way issues. The city is not trying to get right-of-way for the waterline, but will acquire easements to install the line.

"Right-of-way is what the city owns," Lester said. "Easements are what give us the right to go on someone's property."

The easements allow the city to put something such as a waterline underground and the right to go in and repair it if there is a problem.

Because the two projects are being done separately, the easements will be on the west side of the intersection.

"The original plan was to have everything on the east side if all had gone to plan," Lester said.

The east side was chosen because it is cheaper to all of the right-of-way on one side of the road, and from an engineering standpoint, it will make traffic flow easier at the intersection as people are turning.

The reason the waterline work has to be on the west side is because the construction of the intersection might be done first and the city does not want to tear up road work that would be recently completed.

"The waterline won't be in an area where we had just been working," Miller said. "We don't want people to see us building a street and then ripping it up to put a waterline in."