SUPPORTERS CLOSER TO CLOSING THE GAP

CHARLESTON -- Transportation officials in Kentucky have taken the first steps toward a link with Missouri, allocating money for a bridge feasibility project.

Federal highway funds recently were allocated to the Close the Gap Committee, a bi-state group that wants to link Interstate 24 in Kentucky with Interstates 55 and 57 in Missouri. Kentucky's highway department already plans to make Highway 60 a four-lane road between Paducah and LaCenter, and only 30 miles lay between there and Charleston.

The link would mean building a toll bridge over the Mississippi River near Wickliffe, Ky., and Charleston.

Sikeston Director of Economic Development Bill Green, who has helped spearhead the project, said Kentucky had to fund the bridge feasibility study since all Missouri's federal funds were budgeted for other purposes.

"We're kind of keeping our powder dry until the study is done," he said. "Assuming it comes back with a positive result -- and we have every reason to expect that it will -- we will approach the Highway Commission about forming a bi-state commission to adopt the necessary legislation."

Part of that legislation would be something that allows Missouri to have a toll bridge. Kentucky already allows them. Early predictions were that such a bridge could be completed within the next 20 years.

Committee members also are working on development of a Transportation Development District, which has the power to issue bonds to finance road construction.

Mark Preyer of Kennett, a new Missouri highway commissioner appointed in January, will play a key role in the project's completion. Preyer took Cape Girardeau attorney John Oliver's spot on the commission in January.

Now Oliver is serving as Closing the Gap's legal counsel. Before his term expired, he called Closing the Gap "a superb project with bad timing" and lamented the lack of road funds in Missouri.

Preyer said he had a lot of questions about the project, but his initial reaction was favorable.

"Generally, it's good any time you provide another link across that great divide, the Mississippi River," he said. "But it would certainly have to be a long-range plan. We're looking at solving issues about the 15-year plan put in place in 1992. There are questions about whether there is adequate funding for the projects already on it."

Preyer said the project also may be complicated by the number of state and federal agencies that must participate in any bridge work.

Members of the Closing the Gap Committee will meet with Preyer the week of March 11 to clear up the commissioner's questions about their proposal.