Council says rusty pedestrian bridge is eyesore

A rusting pedestrian bridge over Highway 74 is an eyesore, say Cape Girardeau City Council members and residents of the southside neighborhood it spans.

"I think it is an absolute disgrace," Mayor Jay Knudtson said.

However, Missouri Department of Transportation officials and Cape Girardeau city engineer Jay Stencel say the weathered-steel bridge, which is less than 3 years old, was designed to rust.

The rust provides a protective surface that prevents the span from rusting further. Weathered steel is largely maintenance-free and never needs painting.

Numerous pedestrian bridges, including those on walking trails in the state, are built with weathered steel, Stencel said. "On our trail, every bridge is made like that," he said.

But council members say they weren't aware that the bridge would rust, nor that it would be such an eyesore. They hope to meet with MoDOT officials soon to discuss the situation.

Knudtson and other council members want to cover the sides of the span with "Welcome to Missouri" and city welcome signs in an effort to hide the rust. MoDOT first would have to approve that.

Councilman Charlie Herbst, in whose ward the bridge is located, said some of his constituents are dismayed by the appearance of the span.

The Rev. Cecil Thomas Jr., pastor of the Second Missionary Baptist Church located south of the pedestrian bridge, said the structure gives the city a bad appearance and leaves people with the mistaken perception that city officials don't care about the southside neighborhood.

Council members and MoDOT officials said it would be futile to paint the span. "You could sandblast it and paint it, but the paint would come right off," Herbst said.

Knudtson questions whether the span is heavily used. He said he rarely sees people crossing the bridge when he is driving on Highway 74.

But Thomas said many pedestrians in the neighborhood use the bridge. "I walked on it several times myself," he said.

The bridge was built with federal highway enhancement money obtained by the Missouri Department of Transportation and built to MoDOT specifications. MoDOT maintains the 100-foot span just east of Ellis Street.

The city wasn't the one that pushed for that bridge, the mayor said. "MoDOT was the one that was really driving that," he said.

But MoDOT planning manager Bill Robison said the city signed off on the project. The council unanimously authorized the project in November 2001.

Scott Meyer, director of facilities management at Southeast Missouri State University, was the district engineer at MoDOT when the $278,000 bridge was built in 2004. The span opened in fall 2004.

Meyer said MoDOT suggested the project in an effort to connect two parts of a neighborhood that had been divided by the new Highway 74. The highway cut off residential streets, turning them into dead ends and prompting pedestrians to climb over 5-foot-tall chain-link fences lining the highway. Neighborhood residents and civic leaders had expressed concern about the safety of children trying to cross the busy highway.

Meyer recalled that he and other MoDOT officials discussed construction of a maintenance-free span with city officials. But he acknowledged that the issue of rust likely wasn't mentioned. "I can't say we expressed to the city that it would rust for a while," Meyer said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123