Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge turns 5

On a cold, windy day five years ago today, thousands of people gathered on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge to celebrate Cape Girardeau's new connection to the east.

The 1,050-foot cable-stay span over the Mississippi River had been on the city's wish list for years, and the project finally got off the ground when a design firm was selected in 1992. Ground was broken in 1996, but overlooked fissures in limestone bedrock forced delays as a new contractor was hired for the important work of constructing piers to support the structure.

Looking back on the dedication day, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson recalled she was extremely cold in a thin red coat riding in an open car as the first official traveler to cross the bridge. She also recalled the emotion of the moment, when a bridge dedicated to her late husband and former Eighth District congressman was finally complete.

"It definitely is a tribute to my late husband, Bill, who had worked so hard and long," Emerson said. "It was a huge dream, it was very poignant and I was very happy. And I knew he was happy because it had come to fruition."

The $100 million, four-lane bridge replaced a two-lane bridge first opened to traffic in September 1928. "For safety, if nothing else, it was worth it," Emerson said. "That bridge shook when you rode over it. It had a lot of trucks going back and forth. It was frightening. I have traveled on some pretty scary roads, and that was always very, very frightening."

When it was opened, Missouri Department of Transportation officials pegged the traffic count on the old bridge at 14,000 vehicles a day and predicted that the new bridge would carry 25,000 vehicles per day by 2015. Some have questioned those figures, because a May 2006 count showed approximately 7,500 vehicles using the bridge daily and the latest count, from 2007, tallied 11,000 users.

Regardless of the numbers, the bridge makes it easier for residents of Illinois to reach Cape Girardeau for shopping and work, said John Mehner, president of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.

It is hard too determine whether Illinoisans are using the bridge in greater numbers than the old bridge, Mehner said, but figures obtained from major retailers indicate that 15 to 20 percent of the sales are to Illinois residents.

"It is very difficult to get an exact, quantifiable number," he said.

But many things are certain about the new bridge, Mehner said. It has greatly reduced the number of collisions. The old bridge averaged 22 reported collisions a year, a number that did not include near-misses and lost mirrors clipped off semi trucks as they passed each other on the narrow old structure.

"I am comfortable that the bridge has added traffic and brought shoppers," Mehner said.

A traffic engineer with MoDOT's Southeast Missouri district office, Craig Compas, said he's not sure where the 25,000 vehicle projection came from, but he notes that the only options were to replace the deteriorating, obsolete bridge or force drivers to travel miles out of their way. The old span had holes in the pavement and had lost support girders.

"There was a dire need for a bridge there," he said.

The bridge could see substantially more traffic if a proposal for a new interstate highway, known as I-66, ever moves from studies to design. A Kentucky congressman is the road's chief champion. Cape Girardeau leaders want the road built across Southern Illinois from Paducah, Ky. Leaders in Sikeston want the road to run through far western Kentucky and cross the Mississippi River on a new bridge or bridges at the confluence with the Ohio River.

President-elect Barack Obama is seeking a major economic stimulus bill aimed at infrastructure, Mehner noted. Perhaps that is the source of the new interstate, he said. "Anytime you can be in the position to add a bidirectional interstate that you don't have, that is a huge thing. And that bridge is certainly designed to handle it."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

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