BUILDING A BRIDGE

What began in the mid-l980s as little more than a dream soon will become reality when construction begins on a four-lane bridge spanning the Mississippi between Cape Girardeau and East Cape Girardeau, Ill.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission last week awarded a $50.9 million contract to FlatIron Structures Co. of Longmont, Colo., to build the main bridge over the river. A separate contract will be awarded by October for construction of the section of bridge that will pass over wetlands on the Illinois side. Both sections should be completed in three to four years.

The bridge will culminate a long-sought community wish led by the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's Transportation Committee to build a bridge to replace the span that has served travelers well for just shy of seven decades now. The narrow, two-lane bridge, which was built at a cost of $1.6 million and opened in 1928, is safe but functionally obsolete, which means it isn't adequate to handle today's heavier volume of faster-moving vehicles.

As with any major highway improvement, a lack of money initially prevented the project from getting onto the Missouri Highways and Transportation Department's list of projects. The department knew the Cape Girardeau bridge needed replacement, but it couldn't advance the project because maintenance was putting such a high demand on state highway money.

When the department came up with a proposal to increase the state gasoline tax, voters were told a new bridge -- and relocation of Highway 74 that would connect Interstate 55 with it -- would be among a number of major highway improvements that could be carried out with some of the additional money. Voters held the department to its word and approved the gas-tax increase. Missouri worked hard with Illinois to get Illinois to commit money to a portion of the bridge costs and a new approach highway on the Illinois side. Illinois did so, and the department is moving ahead, as witnessed by work on the highway and awarding of the bridge contract.

Many people deserve credit for pursuing the project. Much of it goes to two former highway commissioners: Paul L. Ebaugh and John L. Oliver Jr., both of Cape Girardeau, who persisted in seeing to it that the project moved along. Missouri's two U.S. senators -- Christopher Bond and John Ashcroft -- as well as the late U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson of Cape Girardeau pushed for the necessary 80 percent federal funding. So successful was Emerson in his efforts that the bridge will be named the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. Congress designated it as such only days after the 58-year-old Republican congressman died last month of lung cancer.

Construction of the Highway 74 relocation and Emerson Memorial Bridge, which likely will cost upwards of $90 million, will be the largest public transportation project in Cape Girardeau County since Interstate 55 was built and its final link between Fruitland and Brewer in Perry County opened in 1972. It is project of enormous proportions, one the area can look forward to seeing progress over the next three or four years.