BRIDGE: PROJECT MOVES ALONG AS RESIDENTS AWAIT BUYOUT

Elsie Riehn and her neighbors in the 400 block of College stand to lose their homes to the Mississippi River bridge and highway project. But they're resigned to it.

"No one likes to move, but if we have to move we have to move," said Riehn, a longtime resident of the neighborhood.

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department plans to purchase the Riehn home and more than 130 other residential and commercial properties for right of way for the cross-town highway that will connect a new river bridge with Interstate 55.

H.E. "Bob" Sfreddo, the highway department's District 10 engineer in Sikeston, said Tuesday that his agency hopes to begin purchasing right of way later this year.

Riehn's home is among about 40 tracts of land, extending from the Mississippi River to just west of Sprigg, that the state hopes to have purchased by the end of the year, Sfreddo said.

Riehn said she hates to leave but she has no choice. Still, she said, she's glad the route is going through her property rather than beside it. "I would rather that they take my house than to be on the edge of it," she said.

She said a new river bridge is needed. "I do know that the old bridge is going to have to be replaced. It looks terrible and is narrow."

Eula and Ray Cobble have lived in the 400 block of College Street for 58 years. "It's been a nice neighborhood all these years and we hate to move, but we know we have to," said Eula Cobble.

"We know we have to make room for progress," she said. "This bridge over here is too narrow for these large trucks."

Cobble remembers the opening of the bridge in 1928. "I walked across the bridge when it was dedicated. I hope I live long enough to walk across the new bridge," she said.

Both Eula Cobble and Riehn pointed out that the state highway department will assist in relocating residents whose properties are being purchased, something they said will make moving easier.

Sfreddo said, "We're currently concentrating on right-of-way acquisition in the area of the (new) bridge back to Sprigg Street."

The 40 tracts include property on both sides of College.

There are another 85 pieces of property from just west of Sprigg Street to I-55 and another 13 tracts in the vicinity of the interstate that must be acquired, he said.

Most of the properties along the eastern section of the route are residential. The highway project will eliminate three businesses at the intersection of Sprigg and College streets. One of them, the Rushing Marine shop, has already been purchased, Sfreddo said.

Sfreddo said the state agency is waiting for the Federal Highway Administration to approve an environmental assessment report so that it can proceed with efforts to acquire other properties along the route.

Sfreddo said he's hopeful that the federal agency will approve the environment report within the next couple of weeks. "We are hopeful that we can get this environmental document approved and get on with what needs to be done and get this right of way acquired."

At least 20 of the 40 tracts have been appraised. Appraisals must be done before the state can make offers to property owners, he explained.

After properties have been purchased, the state will seek to sell any marketable buildings, with the stipulation that they be moved from the site. The rest will be demolished.

"We don't want to leave vacant houses," said Sfreddo, pointing out that construction won't begin on the highway and bridge for another 18 months to two years.

He said the demolition work could begin later this year, and will be done a little at a time. "Whenever there are a cluster of homes that we can get cleaned out or razed, we will pursue a demolition contract."

Sfreddo said the state may have to go through condemnation proceedings to acquire some of the property, but he's hopeful that most of the properties can be purchased without such court action.

"I'm pretty optimistic about what's going to happen on the right of way on this one," he said.

Preliminary design work of the bridge is under way. The design work, which will cost about $400,000, is being done by the Kansas City engineering consulting firm of Howard, Needles, Tammen and Bergendoff.

Sfreddo said the firm will prepare alternate preliminary design layouts, design criteria and construction cost estimates for both a concrete and a steel span.

The work should be completed within the next eight months. The Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard will review both alternate designs.

Following their approval, a contract would be awarded to prepare the final design. That work is expected to take another nine months to a year to complete, Sfreddo said.

Both a concrete and a steel structure will be bid in an effort to secure the best construction bid possible, he said.

The bridge and highway project is expected to cost about $90 million, including $60 million for the new bridge. The road work will cost $30 million, with most of that going for the cross-town highway. The $30 million includes about $3.5 million worth of road work on the Illinois side, Sfreddo said.

Federal funding is expected to pay for 80 percent of the cost of the bridge and 75 percent of the cost of the road. If everything goes right, he said, the new bridge and highway should be open to traffic by 1996.