The St. Louis District Corps of Engineers has given Boyd Gaming Corp. the initial nod for construction of a permanent mooring facility on the Mississippi River in downtown Cape Girardeau.

The city received a public notice from the Corps' St. Louis office Thursday. According to the notice, the location for the mooring facility and riverboat gambling casino will be approximately 500 feet north of the Broadway flood gate.

This location is slightly north of what Boyd had originally proposed, according to City Manager J. Ronald Fischer.

The final approval is contingent upon public input that the Corps will solicit through July 26.

The $52 million Boyd project includes a three-deck, 254-feet-long riverboat; a five-level parking garage; a terminal building that will provide the main entrance to the casino complex and include a 250-seat buffet restaurant; a 225-seat entertainment lounge, including a bandstand, dance floor and bar; a pedestrian bridge crossing the river wall and the docking barge.

Boyd plans also call for improvements to the Buckner-Ragsdale building, which will be used for administrative space for the casino.

A tentative opening date of April has been announced by Boyd Gaming.

The mooring barge will be permanently anchored. According to the Corps notice, the barge will be 240 feet long and 40 feet wide. The public notice deals only with the mooring barge, which will be protected by a vessel protection system located upriver from the facility.

The system is designed to prevent any runaway barge from impacting the facility by deflecting the barge back into the navigable river channel.

The State Gaming Commission will determine, based on Corps safety recommendations, whether or not the riverboat will float.

According to the initial proposal, the Corps found that the project is not expected to have any significant adverse effects on the "human environment." However, a final determination of the need for an environmental impact statement will not be made until the Corps has completed a full review of the application.

The review will include the evaluation of any written responses as a result of the public notice. The responses will also be used to determine the need for a public hearing.

Anyone may request that a public hearing be held, provided that such a request identifies "significant issues" that would warrant additional public review and comment.

Fischer noted that the public notice is routine procedure for any river-related project. Any objections received in regard to the project will be evaluated by the Corps, Fischer added.

A preliminary determination by the Corps, in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, has found that these activities would not endanger any species designated as threatened or endangered, or adversely affect any "critical habitat."

The Corps said any interested parties, particularly navigation interests, federal and state agencies for the protection of environmental and cultural resources, may submit comments to the Corps office, 1222 Spruce Street, St. Louis, Mo., 63103-2833.