Construction crews removed a chunk of Aquamsi Street in downtown Cape Girardeau and are replacing it with green space in front of the Red House Interpretive Center.
The project will give the Red House more room for activities, and remove a piece of road that has become obsolete now that Main Street is no longer one-way. Construction is complete. The last remaining step is to plant the grass.
It’s part of a larger Transportation Trust Fund 4 project that will redesign William Street between Kingshighway and the Mississippi River.
City engineer Casey Brunke said St. Louis-based KDG Construction Consulting is working on a conceptual plan for the rest of the street.
“We want it to be functional, but we also want to add some streetscape elements to the corridor which could include lighting, pedestrian improvements, landscaping, maybe some colored concrete, decorative elements, things like that. But it’s certainly not going to look just like Broadway,” Brunke said.
According to Brunke, a funding source is not yet available for this project, and the current study will also represent a concept and just not a specific design. She compares the current concept study to “sketches.”
“We’re not going to be picking out benches and trash cans and things like that,” Brunke said. “We’re just going to have some conceptual ideas of this is the direction we want to head, and then when we get funding later on in the future, hopefully, we can actually put them into documents that we can construct something from.”
Brunke anticipates the concept will be complete in the next couple months. The city will then seek public input.
