SOUTH SPRIGG BRIDGE NOW OPEN

Cindy Rivero will spend 20 minutes less time commuting to and from her job at Lone Star Industries today than she did on Wednesday.

That is because the bridge over Cape LaCroix Creek on South Sprigg Street opened Thursday.

Rivero said she no longer has to take Highway 61 south to Sprigg Street and drive north. Now she can go from her home on Bloomfield Road and head straight south on Sprigg to the plant, making the commute in six minutes instead of 16.

For the last 14 months, construction on South Sprigg, then on the bridge itself, kept commuters like Rivero from taking a direct route south on Sprigg from Southern Expressway to points south.

Before the construction, South Sprigg was vulnerable to floodwaters, while the old, narrow bridge couldn't accommodate heavy trucks, said Ken Eftink, development services coordinator for the city of Cape Girardeau.

When it was time to tear down the old bridge, it was so weak that the workers tearing it down were surprised how easily it fell, Eftink said.

Efforts to build the new bridge and elevate the road date back more than 20 years, said Mayor Al Spradling III. He said problems with funding and logistics from excavation near caves caused the delays.

The city spent $460,000 building the bridge and $585,000 on elevating the section of South Sprigg north of the bridge. Seventy-five percent of the cost of each project came from federal grants.

The city should recoup some of that cost in gas money. It means that city garbage trucks no longer have to take the long way around to the solid-waste transfer station off South Sprigg.

The operation of Lone Star Industries itself wasn't affected much when the road was out, said Steve Leus, its plant manager. "Customers have to come to get cement," he said. "Some had to go more of a distance to get to the plant."

But the employees there certainly felt inconvenienced when the bridge was out. When Martha Feeney, office supervisor at Lone Star Alternate Fuels, heard the bridge was open, she said, "There are people here who are going to sing hallelujah."

In a related, just completed project, the city elevated about 2,000 feet of LaCruz Lane from South Sprigg east to the city's wastewater treatment plant. The elevation raised the road higher than the railroad tracks it had to cross but not high enough to put in a permanent bridge. During most times, vehicles going to the plant drive down to the railroad crossing and back up to the plant.

As part of the road elevation, the city designed a temporary bridge that can be assembled and put in place during times of high water when the railroad isn't running, Eftink said.

This guarantees that the city can operate the plant in times of high water, Eftink said.