BRIDGE GETS FUNDS

The long-awaited news about federal funding for the new Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau arrived this week. Not all the breezes of recent days were caused by passing thunderstorms. Some of them were due to a collective sign of relief and anticipation as the project, currently estimated to cost $134 million, received a big boost.

The new four-lane bridge will replace the two-lane structure that opened in 1928. In those days, there was no developed highway system in Southern Illinois. As a result, bridge traffic was so light that it didn't generate enough toll revenue to pay off bonds, and the company that owned the bridge went broke.

These days, major highway projects rely on a complicated mix of funding which must be shepherded through the bureaucratic and political maze of federal and state government. Leaders in the effort to secure the funding have included Rep. Bill Emerson of Cape Girardeau, who also gave special credit to his House colleague, Rep. Jerry Costello of Illinois, and Missouri's Sen. Christopher Bond.

The new bridge project has been in the works for about a decade. It isn't unusual for a major project like this to move slowly. Supporters of the new bridge can take some pride that the funding decision didn't take even longer. The good news is that future funding for completion of the project is virtually assured, once the first federal dollars are earmarked.

Evidence of the project is highly visible in Cape Girardeau, where work over the past year has included construction of the new bridge access route from Kingshighway to Sprigg Street. Grading has been completed through the former St. Vincent's Seminary property for the bridge route. And work has just started on a new I-55 interchange that eventually will connect the interstate and the bridge route. Plans also call for highway improvements in Illinois.

Anxious motorists who use the existing narrow bridge, which has suffered some flood damage in recent years, will have to wait a few more years before driving across the new span. Current estimates are the bridge will carry traffic by the year 2000.

For now, bridge backers will have to be content that the wheels are in motion that will move the project along, thanks to all the efforts -- locally, in Jefferson City and in Washington.