STATE AWARDS BRIDGE CONTRACT; COLORADO BEATS OUT FIVE OTHER HOPEFULS

Flat Iron Structures Company LLC, of Longmont, Colo., has been awarded the contract for construction of the first phase of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge to be constructed across the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission awarded the $50,854,029 contract Wednesday.

This construction contract is the major part of the new Route 74 Mississippi River bridge project, said Scott Meyer, the department's new district engineer at Sikeston.

"We are very excited about this bridge being under contract," said Meyer.

The contract consists of construction the "cable stay" section of the bridge, which will span the navigational channel of the river.

Two separate projects will be let later -- constructing the remaining section of the bridge which will cross over into Illinois and passing over wetlands in that area.

This work, said Meyer, will be coordinated to complete the entire structure at one time.

Construction of bridge will start in early October, said Meyer, with a completion timetable of three to four years.

Construction of the bridge will require some construction signage along Aquamsi St. in Cape Girardeau.

Motorists will be urged to follow all construction signs and use caution when traveling through the construction zone. Bob Wilson, resident engineer, will be in charge of the project.

A ground-breaking ceremony for the new bridge will be held at a date to be announced, said James Riggins, customer service representative.

"We hope to have a groundbreaking the latter part of July," said Riggins.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Department received six bids on the new bridge on June 28.

The bids were reviewed and submitted to the commission this week.

Two Missouri companies -- McCarthy Brothers Construction Co./PCL of St. Louis and Massman-Johnson Construction of Kansas City -- were among the bidders.

Others submitting bids were Recchi America Inc. of Miami, Fla.; Balfour Beatty Construction of Atlanta, Ga.; and Taylor Brothers Construction of Evansville, Ind.

The new, four-lane spans will replace the existing two-lane bridge which was constructed at a cost of $1.6 million during the mid-1920s. That bridge was started in 1924 and dedicated in 1928.

Overall cost of the new bridge, which will be just south of the existing span, is expected to range between $85-90 million. Eighty percent of the funding is being provided by the federal government.

Transportation officials from Missouri and Illinois have already reached an agreement on the remaining funds.

Illinois will have a bid-letting in August for bridge approach grading work on Route 146 east of the bridge.

The first section of the total project in Missouri, a four-lane highway between Sprigg and Kingshighway, opened in mid-February. The second part is the I-55 interchange, which includes completing Highway 74 from Kingshighway to I-55, should begin this fall.

Missouri and Illinois have committed more than $6.5 million to construction of the bridge.