ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS AFFECT PLANS FOR MISSISSIPPI RIVER BRIDGE

Wetlands on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River could pose an obstacle for the new Mississippi River Bridge at Cape Girardeau.

For each acre of wetland filled for the bridge approaches, up to two or three acres must be purchased to replace the loss.

"Really, over on the Illinois side it's one big wetland," said design engineer Barry Horst of the Missouri Highway Department. "We'll have to mitigate those with replacement acres."

Don Bridgewater, program development engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation in Carbondale, said the wetlands "should not be a stumbling block."

"Those areas of wetlands we are impacting are being mitigated," said Bridgewater.

The replacement acres will be located in Southern Illinois.

Missouri is the lead state in the project, which means it is responsible for all the design preparation.

Both the Missouri and Illinois highway departments must apply to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to build on environmentally sensitive land.

"We'll have to jump through a few more hoops to get that," Horst said.

One option available to builders is to plant trees in the area of the current bridge on the Illinois side after it is removed. Horst said he doubts if enough trees could be planted to cover all the wetland acres that will be affected, but would consider anything to help.

"Even by planting trees," he said, "we're not going to balance the lost acres. So then we'll have to buy property to turn them into wetlands."

Poor soil conditions on the Illinois side also could hamper bridge construction. To firm the land, filling holes in the ground with columns of stone has been proposed. This measure could reinforce the Illinois abutments to meet seismic standards for earthquake resistance, Horst said.