BRIDGE REPAIRS CONTINUE; SPAN CLOSED ON WEDNESDAY

Traffic across the Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau will be limited to one lane of traffic today as repairs continue.

The bridge may be closed next week to complete additional repairs on the 80-year-old structure, said Randy Hitt, area engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation.

As crews did repair work on the bridge this week, they watched a new crack develop, likely caused by the normal expansion and contraction from weather changes.

"We are trying to do work with just one lane closed," said Hitt. We know it's an inconvenience to close the bridge, but some of these repairs are right on the center line."

The bridge was closed to traffic Wednesday. It also was closed for repairs on Feb. 24, and has been open to one lane of traffic instead of two on other days since last week.

The bridge is safe, Hitt said.

"We are never going to get to the situation where someone will fall in," Hitt said. "But if we don't fix it now -- and let it go for six months or so -- we would have to do some major repair work. Instead of a one-day shutdown we would be looking at a week-long shutdown."

At the same time repairs are being done on the bridge, construction work is progressing on the new river bridge.

Hitt said some crews had trouble with the process of jet grouting concrete into cracks in the bedrock under the new bridge. "We've retooled and the grout is going in, and the mud is coming out like it's supposed to," he said.

But work is behind schedule. "We're hoping that week after next we can work with the contractor to go to a double shift," he said.

Work is being done on the Illinois side. "We are hoping to relet the main span contract maybe in July," Hitt said.

"In the meantime, we've just got to continue to take a pro-active approach to the old bridge," he said.

Every three months an inspection is scheduled. When the current round of repairs are completed, stress analysis will be conducted.

"The bridge deck is pretty rough with trucks out there bouncing up and down. It puts extra stress and strain on the bridge," Hitt said.

The speed limit has been reduced to 25 mph to help alleviate some of the stress. The speed limit had been 40 mph.

Hitt said overall load weight limits could be imposed on the bridge in the future. "You see that on lots of older bridges," he said.