HIGH WATER HALTS EMERSON BRIDGE WORK

Work on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge has come to a halt because of the rising Mississippi River.

Matt Girard, project manager for Flatiron Structures Inc., the bridge contractor, told 80 workmen to go home Monday when high water brought work on the Missouri side to a standstill.

"We've essentially shut down until the river cooperates a little more," Girard said. "The jump that we had was about 16 feet in three days, which really hurts. Most of the field-hands are laid off until we can bring them back on."

The workers, most of them local people, will not be paid while they wait out the delay.

The river flooded the excavated portion of the project where they were planning to lay a concrete foundation for the first pier Friday. Girard said the pit for the piers was flooded to keep it from caving in, but sediment will have to be removed after the water subsides.

The river is expected to rise to 37 feet by Friday and then start falling.

"If the river doesn't cooperate it will push back the completion date, no doubt," Girard said. "We had some rises in water back around Thanksgiving that caused us some problems. There was no equipment washed away but there was some construction material that got lost on the river."

He said workers had made up for lost time since then working double shifts but were still behind schedule. Girard said he hopes the river falls so that crews can get back to work.

"It could be devastating for the project and it could be devastating for us financially," he said. "There are numerous possibilities that I'd hate to guess on. The longer we're in temporary suspension the more damage it could do."

Allen Thomas, field engineer for the construction division of the Illinois Department of Transportation, said about 15 workers were laid off this week on the Illinois side. The Illinois approach is ahead of schedule and Thomas said the delay won't cause too many problems.

"Right now we've got all our preliminary work done," said Thomas. "We've got all the subsurface work completed. So it shouldn't be a real problem. We're ahead of schedule because we've been able to work all winter."

Even significant flooding won't cause additional problems on the Illinois side, he said. "All we can do is kind of wait until it goes down," Thomas said. "It probably doesn't have to drop that far."