BRIDGE REPAIRS PROPOSED; BOND, EMERSON SEEK FEDERAL FUNDS

Congress needs to set aside $500 million to $800 million a year to repair and replace the nation's obsolete and structurally deficient bridges, two lawmakers said Thursday.

Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson have sponsored legislation to provide such funding as part of the new federal highway bill.

The two Missouri Republicans pushed their respective bills at a news conference Thursday afternoon at the construction site of the new Mississippi River bridge in Cape Girardeau.

Construction of the $84 million Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge continued as the two lawmakers spoke a short distance away.

The bridge is named after Emerson's late husband, who died of lung cancer last summer. The span is expected to be completed by 2001.

Emerson wants Congress to earmark $800 million a year in highway funds for bridge work nationwide. That would amount to $4 billion over the next five years.

Bond has proposed that Congress set aside $500 million a year in Highway Trust Fund money for bridge work. Over five years, that would amount to $2.5 billion.

Congress is working on a highway bill that would cover the next five years. The law governing federal highway funds expires Sept. 30. "We hope that it will pass this summer," said Bond.

He and Emerson said any differences over bridge money in the two bills could be worked out in a conference committee.

"We are very interested in seeing that the nation takes care of its crumbling bridges," Bond said. "We haven't had the money to keep them up."

The transportation department estimated it would cost $8.9 billion to bring the nation's bridges up to par, Bond said.

The department ranks Missouri the sixth worst state in the nation in terms of obsolete and deficient bridges.

Bond said 46 percent of Missouri's 23,000 bridges are structurally deficient or obsolete. The list includes the existing Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau, a two-lane span built in 1928.

Bond said new highways won't get Missourians very far if they have to stop at every bridge.

"Postponing bridge repair means our investment declines and later repairs will cost more," he said. "We are trying to make bridge repair a federal priority."

Unless money from the Highway Trust Fund is set aside for bridge repairs and construction, Emerson said, the money will be spent in other transportation areas such as mass transit projects in New York and Los Angeles.

Repairing and replacing bridges nationwide is more important than mass transit projects that would serve only the large cities, Emerson said.

Bond said, "We want modern, safe and efficient bridges."

Missourians pay more in federal gas taxes than they receive back in highway money.

Missouri is one of about 20 so-called donor states. The other 30 states get back more highway dollars than they pay in.

Montana, for example, receives $2 in gas tax money for every $1 it pays, Emerson said.

Both Emerson and Bond said they hope the new highway bill will bring a return of 95 cents on every dollar in federal gas taxes generated at the pumps in Missouri.

Missouri receives 86 or 87 cents in highway money for every federal gas-tax dollar generated in the state, Emerson said.