BRIDGE TO BE TOWERING PROJECT

Building a new Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau is one of the largest projects the state Highway Department will complete this decade.

With a $90 million price tag, the bridge is expected to be completed by 1999. Construction will start in early 1994, state officials say.

The new bridge will be built two blocks south of the existing span. About 130 homes and businesses have to be demolished to clear the way. More than 100 families will be relocated.

Among those affected:

A 70-year-old grandmother whose home sits directly in the path of where the bridge will be built. So far, she has refused to sell her property to the state.

A hospital cook who used to rent a home on South Sprigg until the state paid him $13,000 to move.

A young family who has sold its house to the state, but whose garage and adjacent lot the state doesn't want.

The two-lane bridge connecting Missouri and Illinois was built in 1926 and opened two years later. It's considered structurally sound but no longer practical.

"It's functionally obsolete," said Jerry Masterson, a design engineer with the state Highway Department. The current bridge is 20 feet wide.

"At the time it was built, 20 feet was considered wide enough," he said. "But that was when 20 miles per hour was the top speed."

The new bridge will be four times as wide, allowing for four lanes of traffic. It has been in the planning stages since the mid-1980s.

But like any other massive undertaking, state officials say, "It's not going to happen overnight."

Aside from actual construction, clearing the bridge route to make way for a highway that will connect the bridge with Interstate 55 is the largest task.

Relocation costs alone are estimated to be $6 million. In all, 133 tracts of land will be purchased by the state to make way for the highway.

The bridge is a joint project between Missouri and Illinois, and Missouri is the lead state. Missouri's cost is estimated to be $68 million, Masterson said, which includes the cost of building a highway from the bridge to Interstate 55.

The highway will be called Route 74, a four-lane, limited access highway. The bridge will connect Illinois Route 146 with Route 74, which will generally follow College Street to the 600 block of South Kingshighway and continue to Interstate 55.

Masterson said the highway will be completed at about the same time as the bridge.

A design contract for the bridge has been awarded to the firm of Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff of Kansas City. The preliminary design of the new bridge is expected to be completed this summer. The final design of the bridge will be completed in about six months, Masterson said.

"We've been talking about a new bridge at Cape for years," he said. "It's about to come together now."

Officials estimate the bridge will take five years to construct. Masterson said for the first several years, none of the work will be visible.

"We'll probably spend about $20 million out there before you're able to see anything. It will all be under water," he said. The work will include drilling into the bedrock of the Mississippi.

There has been little debate concerning the need for a new bridge. Illinois and Missouri have designated the project as a highway priority. Missouri has already committed millions in state dollars. Illinois has balked on funding but has included bridge construction in a five-year highway plan.