BRIDGE WORK MAY RESUME IN MAY

Construction could resume in May on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, state highway officials said Tuesday.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is scheduled to open bids March 20 for jet grouting work to address a bedrock problem in the Mississippi River and construction of the Illinois approach span.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission could award contracts for the work when it meets April 3.

The $50.8 million construction project for the main span of the bridge at Cape Girardeau was terminated in December by mutual agreement of the contractor and the Department of Transportation.

The termination occurred after fissures were discovered in the bedrock where a bridge pier was to be anchored.

Before construction can resume on the cable-stay section of the bridge, the bedrock problem must be addressed, state highway officials said.

The state intends to solve the problem through jet grouting. Jet grouting is specialized work that could cost $4 million, said the transportation department's Barry Horst, project development engineer with the state highway office in Sikeston. The jet grouting work could take three to four months to complete, he said.

District engineer Scott Meyer said a water jet would be used to clean out the loose rock and mud seams. Those fissures will then be filled with grout, a cement-like material, he said.

Meyer said jet grouting would be less costly than the $9 million or $10 million it would cost to drill shafts into the rock and fill them with concrete.

Horst said construction of the approach span could cost nearly $28 million and take two years to complete. The approach span would extend from the Illinois shore out over the river where it would connect with the main span.

"It is more of a conventional type bridge," Horst said of the approach span.

Meyer said the department wants to proceed with the approach work as soon as possible so that union laborers can go back to work.

Local construction workers lost their jobs on the bridge project when the contract was terminated with the contractor, Flatiron Structures Co. of Longmont, Colo.

Horst said, "That is one of the unfortunate things that happened when we had to terminate the last contract."

Missouri has loaned Illinois money to pay for its share of the bridge. Most of the project is being funded with federal money.

Illinois will pay back the loan with interest of 5.3 percent in four equal installments following each year's construction, Missouri highway officials said.

Horst said the bridge is expected to cost $89.2 million, including the added cost of jet grouting.

Meyer said the state could let a new contract on the main bridge span this fall.

The delay in finding a new contractor is expected to move back the construction timetable a year, with completion now targeted for 2002.