The Cape Girardeau County Commission took a step to help the safety of citizens during the closure of Route Z near Gordonville.
The commission approved setting the speed limit to 45 miles per hour and adding signs on County Roads 324, 327, 226, 227 and 222 during the replacement of the Route Z bridges over Hubble Creek and Hubble Creek Overflow.
“I believe these will be bypass routes used by a large number of people,” Commissioner Stephen Daume said.
An emergency ordinance will be drafted by the county’s attorney to set the speed limits and add additional signage, such as “intersection ahead.”
“This will hopefully keep everybody safe during construction,” Daume said.
The project will widen the bridges to accommodate two lanes of traffic as well as raising the roadway to mitigate flooding on Route Z.
According to Daume, the project is estimated to take about 18 months to complete.
The section of roadway from West Clark Street to County Road 222 near Gordonville closed Monday to begin the project.
According to MoDOT, County Road 222 will remain open, except for some minor, short-term closures when constructing the new county road connection into Route Z. Notification will be provided prior to any impact to County Road 222.
In other action:
• The commission approved emergency management to go to bid for a new mass notification system.
According to Emergency Management Director Sam Herndon, the department would like to receive bids to see if technology has changed or pricing decreased.
“The program we switched to two years ago doesn’t function quite as well as they claimed it did and when we first got it,” he said. “I would just like to see, for the money we are paying, if there is a better product out there so we can maintain a good system.”
• Commissioners approved the contract with Pleimann Hauling for County Road 416.
• The commission approved the request to publish the Proposed Property Tax Rate Hearing to be held at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10.
