BIDS BEING SOUGHT ON NEW BRIDGE; WORK ON RIVER SPAN SHOULD START IN FALL

McCarthy Brothers Construction Co. is seeking bids from subcontractors and suppliers for a new Mississippi River bridge that will connect Missouri and Illinois at Cape Girardeau.

"We have to have these bids in hand by 10 p.m. June 27," said Mike McCarthy of McCarthy Brothers in St. Louis. "This will give us time to prepare our final bid for the main span of the cable-stayed bridge the next day."

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Department will open bids June 28. The low bid will be read, and following a review by the highways commission, a contract likely will be awarded.

"Bids will be opened in Jefferson City," said Larry Rohr, district highway design engineer in the department's Sikeston office. "It usually takes about a week before the contract is awarded."

McCarthy Brothers is one of many contractors that will be submitting bids as a primary contractor for the bridge. The span will replace the two-lane bridge that was built in 1924.

McCarthy and other contractors attended a recent pre-bid meeting at Cape Girardeau, where highways department representatives outlined the first phase of actual bridge construction.

The pre-bid meeting was held in advance of the June 28 bid openings.

The department has received many inquiries for plans and specifications, said Rohr.

The bridge project will consist of construction of the cable-stayed main span -- the substructure, superstructure and deck.

The four-lane bridge, which will be just south of the existing span, is expected to cost $50 million to 60 million. Eighty percent of the funding is being provided by the federal government.

Transportation officials from Missouri and Illinois have already reached an agreement on the remaining funds, and the first phase of construction is expected to get under way this fall.

The first step in construction will be to sink pilings in the river.

Meanwhile, Illinois will have a bid-letting in August for bridge approach grading work on Route 146 east of the bridge.

Illinois will spend about $4 million to construct 1.1 miles of four-lane pavement from the east abutment of the bridge to North Bader Lane in East Cape Girardeau.

The first section of the total project in Missouri, a four-lane highway between Sprigg and Kingshighway, was opened in mid-February. It is a section of the total project that will provide a new link from Interstate 55 to Illinois.

This fall the second part of the I-55 interchange, which includes completing Highway 74 from Kingshighway to I-55 should begin. It is scheduled to be completed next spring.

Missouri and Illinois have committed more than $6.5 million to construction of the bridge.