BRIDGE WORK SOON MOVES MAIN SPAN

Construction should begin this year on the main span of the cable-stay Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau.

A bedrock problem in the middle of the river has been fixed so work can proceed on the main span, the Missouri Department of Transportation said.

Nicholson Construction Co. of Bridgeville, Pa., in January completed jet grouting to repair mud seams in the bedrock of a pier site in the river. The bedrock repairs have added about $8 million to the cost of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, said Randy Hitt, MoDOT area engineer.

The price tag for the bridge is expected to top $100 million.

More grouting material had to be used and repairs took longer than originally anticipated., Hitt said Wednesday.

The jet-grouting work took about a year and a half to complete. Initial testing of the process and periods of high water on the river added to the time it took to make repairs, he said.

Hitt said this was the first time jet grouting was used in this fashion. "There was obviously a little bit of a learning curve in finding out what worked and what didn't," he said.

Tests show the grouting process has strengthened the bedrock so it can support the new bridge even in the event of a major earthquake, said Hitt.

A contract for the main span is to be awarded in March with construction to begin by summer, Hitt said. Bids are scheduled to be opened in Jefferson City on Feb. 18.

Hitt said the contractor will have to complete an unfinished pier on the Missouri shore as well as construct the pier in the middle of the river as part of the main span work.

The Missouri shore pier will be 180 feet taller when it is completed, Hitt said. It could take most of this year to complete the pier, he said.

The pier has stood unfinished since the original contractor, Flatiron Structures, bowed out of the project in 1997 after the bedrock problem was discovered. Flatiron had completed about 18 percent of its work when it pulled out under an agreement with MoDOT.

Construction of the main span is expected to take three years to complete, said Hitt. The work includes the hanging of steel cables that support the main span and erection of girders and deck panels. The project also includes installation of roadway and decorative lighting.

More than $25 million of the total cost will be spent for Illinois approach work. Massman Construction Co. of Kansas City is finishing work on the piers and girders along the Illinois shore for the bridge approach. That work should be completed in June, Hitt said.

Two more construction contracts remain to be awarded in addition to the main span. Those contracts include construction of the bridge deck on the Illinois approach and extending new Highway 74 eastward from its dead end at Sprigg Street to connect with the new span. That work likely will proceed in 2002, Hitt said.

At the height of construction, as many as 70 people may be working on the bridge project, Hitt said. The bridge should be completed by June 2003, he said.

The bridge will be the first in the Midwest to include sensitive, state-of-the-art equipment designed to measure the impact of earthquakes. Cape Girardeau's bridge will be the first cable-stay span to be outfitted with such equipment.

MoDOT plans to demolish the old, two-lane river bridge once the new structure is in place. The old bridge was constructed in 1928. It could be demolished in 2004, Hitt said.