CHESTER: BRIDGE WORK PUT ON HOLD

CHESTER, Ill. -- Rehabilitation and repainting of the Chester, Ill., bridge over the Mississippi River is on hold again.

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department has revised scheduling plans for the project.

"Environmental concerns, precipitated by the presence of lead paint on the river bridge, requires extensive measures to prevent contamination of the river from the paint removal process," said Tom Stehn, district design engineer for the department. "This requirement has more than tripled the original estimate, and such a radical increase in costs has forced a reassessment of earlier plans."

Bids on the project were originally scheduled to be let in November, with work hopefully to get under way in January 1993.

"Timing for the project is now uncertain," said Stehn.

The original estimate for the job was about $3.5 million, which would include sandblasting of the bridge's 1,651-foot steel superstructure to remove all of the old lead-based paint and application of a primer and new coat of paint.

Besides the new paint job, Stehn said the old toll house on the Illinois side of the river was to be removed to improve the eastern approach to the bridge.

Also on the project schedule was some deck and joint work on the steel superstructure, replacement of all of the electrical conduits and channel navigation marker lights, removal of all of the existing street lights on the bridge, and installation of a quarter-inch polymer seal coating on top of the concrete bridge deck, which should eliminate a lot of deck maintenance problems, he said.

Although timing for the major project painting of the bridge is uncertain, Stehn said the design for improvements to the Missouri approach are progressing and the department plans to let that portion of the work for bids in mid-1993.

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Department is the lead agency for the painting project. All planning is done in full cooperation with the Illinois Department of Transportation. Both agencies are engaged in development of funding plans and possible reductions to the extent of the rehabilitation measures.

The Chester bridge was completed in August 1942, then closed July 29, 1944, after the main span of the bridge was destroyed by a tornado. The reconstructed bridge was reopened to traffic in September 1946. It was operated by the city of Chester as a toll bridge until Jan. 1, 1989, when Missouri and Illinois agreed to take over its operation and maintenance.