BRIDGE DELAY IS EXPECTED MONDAY

Traffic over the Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau will be delayed for at least 15 minutes Monday while the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department resurfaces the Morgan Oak Street approach to the bridge.

Mike Perry, a spokesman for the highway department's District 10 office at Sikeston, said Friday that the contractor has indicated he will wait until the morning rush-hour traffic into Cape Girardeau has crossed the bridge before beginning the asphalt resurfacing work.

"The traffic bottleneck is going to occur right there at the approach to the bridge," Perry said. "There's nothing we can do about it. We'll try to get that part of the job done as quickly as possible, but there will be a backup of traffic because the asphalt trucks and the paving machine will be blocking both lanes on the bridge."

Perry said motorists who need to cross the bridge Monday morning may want to cross before the work begins or delay their crossing until the Morgan Oak approach has been resurface.

After completing the work at the bridge approach, Perry said the contractor will work westward on Morgan Oak toward South Sprigg.

He said motorists can detour around the resurfacing work by turning onto Spanish, Lorimier, Asher, Middle or Frederick streets.