PAVING TO TEMPORARILY CLOSE BRIDGE; TRAFFIC WON'T BE ALLOWED AT NIGHT STARTING IN JULY

The Mississippi River bridge will be closed to traffic all night for about three weeks this summer for resurfacing work.

Missouri Department of Transportation officials said the 70-year-old span would be closed to all but emergency traffic Sundays through Thursdays beginning in late July.

The bridge will be closed for repairs from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Most of the work will be on the Illinois side.

For residents of East Cape Girardeau and McClure, Ill., the closing is a problem. They won't be able to shop, dine or go to the movies in Cape Girardeau during the evening hours, at least not if they want to get back home without having to go miles out of their way.

They would have to use the bridges at Chester or Cairo to cross into Missouri, making for a lengthy trip that takes only minutes when the Cape Girardeau bridge is open.

The closing also will be hard on Illinois residents who work night jobs in Missouri.

"I guess we will survive it," said Joe Aden, mayor of East Cape Girardeau. "We will hang in there."

Aden said 480 people live in East Cape Girardeau. In all, about 1,000 people live in the East Cape Girardeau and McClure area, he estimated.

For them, even the nighttime closing will be inconvenient. "This is a very important link for us in Illinois," he said.

Illinois residents buy groceries and fill their cars with gasoline in Cape Girardeau. They eat at Cape Girardeau restaurants and go to the movies.

All of that will be more difficult when the old bridge closes for repairs, Aden said.

Scott Meyer, MoDOT district engineer in Sikeston, said the two-lane bridge is too narrow to accommodate the repair work and traffic at the same time.

"By the time you get a machine in there to take out that asphalt plus put a barrier in there to make it safe, there is just no room for a car to get through there," Meyer said.

The state Highway and Transportation Commission is expected to award a contract in early July. The project is expected to cost about $250,000.

Meyer said the resurfacing will eliminate potholes that make for bumpy travel on the bridge.

Meyer and other MoDOT officials said nighttime work would inconvenience the least number of people.

Scheduling it in late summer allows for the work to be done after the Fourth of July holiday and before the Labor Day holiday and the start of a new school year, they said.

About 14,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily. But traffic drops off during evening hours, said Randy Hitt, MoDOT area engineer from Jackson.

Still, Hitt said a couple of hundred shift workers would be affected by the closing. MoDOT has already contacted major employers such as the two Cape Girardeau hospitals about the proposed closing.

Meyer said the highway department hopes employers can move the affected employees to other shifts or that the workers can find temporary lodging in the Cape Girardeau area during the weeks the bridge is closed to night traffic.

MoDOT expects to schedule a public meeting and send out mailings later this summer to further notify businesses and the public about the bridge closing. Signs would be placed along Interstate 55 at Perryville and Sikeston to alert truckers to the bridge's closing.

MoDOT also is working to notify trucking firms about the temporary closing.

The closing may cut down on customers at the Purple Crackle nightclub. But Hitt said the club's owner believes it shouldn't pose a serious problem as long as the bridge remains open Friday and Saturday nights.

Still, he and other highway officials acknowledge the inconvenience for businesses and residents on both sides of the river.

"It is an inconvenience but not a catastrophe," said Hitt.

The work is expected to be the last major repairs that will be needed on the bridge. It will be replaced within the next several years by a new bridge that is under construction.