BRIDGE OPENING DELAYED; BLOOMFIELD ROAD SPAN ALMOST DONE

Six months after the old bridge was closed, Cape Girardeau officials hope a new Bloomfield Road bridge over Cape LaCroix Creek soon will open.

The bridge was shut down June 2 for construction of the new, 36-foot-wide span that will include a 5-foot-wide pedestrian crossing on the north side.

The bridge work is part of the Cape LaCroix Creek-Walker Branch flood-control project a joint effort of the city and the Army Corps of Engineers.

City Engineer J. Kensey Russell said Tuesday the only obstacle that now stands in the way of opening the bridge is the weather.

"The bridge structure itself is pretty well complete," Russell said. "There are some approach slabs associated with the bridge that are not done yet."

The bridge replacement initially was scheduled to be completed in October. But delays have pushed that date to mid-December, which Russell said might be pushed back again.

He said a wet November and difficulty coordinating a recreation trail underpass that's being constructed as part of the flood work primarily are to blame for the delays.

"The work with the recreation trail and trying to coordinate that work has been part of the delay," Russell said. "Also, in November the number of days they could really work effectively and the number of times water was flowing down that creek has affected a lot in last 30 days."

The city engineer said that the contractor for the bridge work, Givens Construction of Poplar Bluff, said 30 days ago that the work would be completed this month.

"Now that we're in December and we've just come out of a wet 30 days, I don't know if the contractor will have to revise that deadline or not," Russell said.

He said the contractor is working on the recreation trail tunnel that will be built on the east side of the bridge.

"Once he gets that constructed and gets the backfill in, he can get the approach slabs done," he said.

The 8-foot-wide recreational trail runs along Cape LaCroix Creek and beneath Independence, William, Kingshighway and Bloomfield. Earlier this year some residents criticized the design of the trail because it narrows at the Independence and William underpasses.

Since then the city and Corps have studied the feasibility of widening the trail at the remaining underpasses, and the Bloomfield Road underpass now will be 10 feet wide.

Russell said the new bridge should be safer and better able to handle Bloomfield Road traffic.

"The volume of traffic we had previously with the old bridge, given its width, made the bridge functionally obsolete," he said. "It should be safer, and will allow traffic to and from the highway intersection to flow better.

"People drive better when they feel safe, and that should be an asset," he said. "Whether the traffic will increase or not, I don't know. I'm sure a lot of the traffic that's been diverted to other east-west routes will readjust once that bridge is opened."