SEPTEMBER START FOR NEW RIVER SPAN

The Sept. 3 starting date for construction of the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge was heralded Friday by federal, state and local officials who gathered to celebrate the transportation improvement and its impact on the region.

"A lot of people are helping to make a dream come true," said Federal Highway Administrator Rodney Slater. "This bridge will connect two great states divided by a river."

Slater was one of eight speakers who addressed a crowd of more than 200 people. They gathered on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, on a site where the new bridge will touch ground on the Missouri side.

"Bill Emerson was a major member of a group including government and private officials and citizens all working to make this dream come true," said Slater.

"This is a tremendous occasion," said Tom Boland, current chairman of the Missouri Highway Commission. "This bridge will provide a modern, safer crossing on the Mississippi River. It will allow for freer flow of commerce and economic benefits for the entire region."

Boland, and Joe Mickus, chief engineer of the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department, agreed Emerson played major role in obtaining funding for the bridge.

"It's a pleasure to be here today to meet Emerson's family," said Boland. On hand for the occasion was Jo Ann Emerson, the congressman's widow, and Marie Hahn, Emerson's mother.

Other speakers during the 1 1/2-hour ceremony were Karl Bartlesmeyer of the Illinois Transportation Department's District 9, U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond and state Sen. Peter Kinder, who read a letter submitted by U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft who could not attend the ceremony. Former Highway Commissioner John Oliver of Cape Girardeau also attended.

Bond presented Mrs. Emerson with a copy of the resolution naming the bridge as a memorial to the congressman, who died of cancer.

Jo Ann Emerson said she was looking to the day when she can drive across the new bridge.

"I can think of no finer tribute to my husband, Bill Emerson, the bridge builder, than what you are doing here today in his memory," she said.

"It is only fitting that rather than having this dedication in some banquet room or hotel convention center, that it be on the banks of the Mississippi River, just downstream from the old bridge and St. Vincent Seminary."

The new bridge at Cape Girardeau has been a fight and was Emerson's top infrastructure project over the past few years, she said.

"But there are so many people that worked with Bill over the years, so we could be here today," added Mrs. Emerson.

She mentioned Paul Ebaugh, former highway commissioner who started to talking Emerson about a new bridge 10 years ago; Oliver, Ebaugh's successor; the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, Slater, Southern Illinois Reps. Jerry Costello and Glenn Poshard; and Bond and Ashcroft.

"Bill tried to build bridges every day ...bridges between Democrats and Republicans, between the rich and the poor, the left and the right, and the bridge between Illinois and Missouri," said his widow.

The new, four-lane bridge will be a state-of-the-art, cable-stayed bridge, and will be built just south of the existing two-lane bridge.

Construction will get under way Sept. 3. The commission recently awarded the $50 million contract for the new bridge to a Colorado firm, FlatIron Structures Co. of Longmont.

When FlatIron Structures' workers start construction of a coffer dam for the first of two bridge towers for the bridge here in early September, they'll hit the ground running, said Matt Girard and Steve Hague.

"FlatIron Structures has been involved in a lot of heavy construction projects," Steve Hague, a consultant for Howard, Needles, Tammen and Bergendorf, the bridge's designers from Kansas City. "The company will start with the two cable piers and go from there."

Girard, project manager for FlatIron Structures, agreed.

"We'll start Sept. 3 with work on one coffer dam for the first cable tower," said Girard. "Once we get the first tower, which will be near the Missouri bank, we'll go to the second tower."

A coffer-dam will not be required for the second tower, which will be more than 1,000 feet out into the river.

"We will utilize a different format for sinking the base of the second tier," said Girard.

FlatIron will establish a construction headquarters at 101 William in Cape Girardeau.

"The main part of the bridge will be in three spans," said Hogue. The center span -- between the twin towers -- will be 1,150 feet. Each of the outside spans will be 468 feet."

The two cable tiers will tower 268 feet from the deck of the bridge to allow for the cables.

The $50 million contract was the largest single project ever approved by the Missouri Transportation Commission.

The entire project, including approaching roadways and other work, will cost about $90 million, and could be completed as early as the final quarter of the year 2000.

"Hopefully it will be a little sooner than that," said Girard.