Emerson Bridge will be dark for Libertyfest

The lights will be off for about a month, which Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson called "unacceptable."

Just in time for Cape Girardeau's Libertyfest celebration, the lights on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge have gone dark.

For the third time since being installed in January 2004, the decorative lights on the bridge went out Thursday, this time due to a bad transformer -- the same thing that turned the lights out last October.

The lights also went out March 11, 2004, when they were shut down due to a problem with moisture seeping inside the bulbs. They were down until May 7 that year while new parts were installed.

Officials with MoDOT, the agency responsible for maintaining the lights, said they aren't sure what happened.

"At this point we can only speculate on why the transformer blew," said Craig Compas with MoDOT. "It could be the lightning that struck three weeks ago or it could be a power surge out of our control."

The bridge lights run on a two-transformer system, said Compas, and this transformer is not the same one that went out in October. It will likely be a month before the lights come back on, Compas said, while replacement parts are ordered and installed.

The controller, which tells the lights when to turn on and off, is also out.

The navigational lights and street lights run separately and were not affected by the blown transformer.

Cape Girardeau Mayor Jay Knudtson said he's tired of seeing the lights go dark, especially when residents put up $110,000 of the cost through a Chamber of Commerce fund drive.

"To be told it will be 30 days, in my opinion, is an unacceptable answer," Knudtson said. "It's embarrassing, and the citizens of Cape Girardeau deserve an answer."

Knudtson said the darkened bridge is especially disappointing given that so many will gather in downtown Cape Girardeau Monday for Libertyfest.

"Now people will have to sit and view the fireworks with a darkened bridge," he said. "It's terribly frustrating."

Compas said this is the first bridge of its kind the Southeast district of MoDOT has had to deal with, so the agency is still learning about the system.

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