BRIDGE DESIGN ALMOST FINISHED

Design plans for the new Mississippi River Bridge at Cape Girardeau are "more than 95 percent complete," said Fred Martin, assistant chief of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Department's bridge division.

Once funding is secured, contracts for construction of the cable-span bridge could be let by the end of 1995, Martin said. Work could start in early 1996, with the bridge opening in late 2000.

The bridge will be 4,000 feet long, with two towers 300 feet above the Mississippi River supporting the bridge with cables.

Work is under way on a highway through Cape Girardeau that will connect the bridge with Interstate 55. Right-of-way acquisition and earthwork are almost finished. A contract for the part of the route from Kingshighway to Sprigg Street was awarded in December 1994. The total cost for the road to the bridge is estimated at $25 million.

The bridge will be assembled in pieces from the Missouri side of the river, with the first of three spans ending over the middle of the river. Missouri, the lead state in the joint effort with Illinois, is drafting most of the plan for the bridge.

"Illinois has a voice and can review the decisions we make," Martin said.

The states will split paying 10 percent of the estimated $75 million to $80 million cost of the bridge. The rest will be supplied by the federal government.

District 10 Construction Engineer Bob Simpson said the current bridge, now 67 years old, is "functionally obsolete." He said, "It's too narrow and too old for the widths of vehicles."

The new bridge will have four lanes with a concrete median.

The same type of bridge spans the Mississippi at Alton, Ill., and Quincy, Ill. Illinois was the lead state in those projects.

The bridge currently serving Cape Girardeau is in no danger of failing, Simpson said. Increased traffic is one reason the bridge is being replaced.

District 10 Design Engineer Barry Horst said the new bridge "will be a pretty elaborate structure. It will be a real landmark for Cape Girardeau."