LETTERS: LONGTIME BRIDGE EFFORT

To the editor:

Whoa! Let's back up.

While the Southeast Missourian is correct in the credit it gave in its July 9 editorial to those who provided the final impetus for construction of a new Mississippi River traffic bridge in Cape Girardeau, it should be noted the effort began much earlier.

It began, in fact, in this very newspaper in the 1960s and continued into the 1970s. The Missourian in editorials, and at times in a news context, called attention to the need for a new bridge. It cited the narrow, two-lane span built to 1920s standards, hazards to traffic, accidents on the bridge and especially the danger of heavy, runaway tows damaging the structure and closing it to interstate traffic.

When the interstate system was created by President Eisenhower, the location of I-24 and I-57, and bridge to accommodate them, became a political issue.

Each of the governors of the four affected states on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in this region had his own special agenda. The Missouri State Highway Commission (at a cost of almost $100,000) employed Wilbur Smith & Associates, a nationally known consulting firm, to determine where a new Mississippi River bridge for I-24 should be located.

In an inch-thick study, Smith set out possibilities and many details. In essence, it boiled down to this: The least expensive bridge for the traveling public (read that taxes) across the Mississippi to link I-24 with I-55 would be in the Scott City area.

Despite a strong effort by this newspaper over a period of time, the recommendation was not followed. The four governors -- Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee -- met and divvied up the spoil. Disregarding the best recommendation of the Smith report, they satisfied their special agendas.

Tennessee and Missouri got a bridge across the Mississippi from Dyersburg to near Caruthersville. The governors of Illinois and Kentucky got a bridge across the Ohio River and I-24 and I-57 routing through Illinois. The Cape Girardeau area got nothing.

The Caruthersville site chosen for Missouri-Tennessee had some year earlier been proposed for a bridge. This was turned down by the Missouri Highway Commission because of the huge cost of making swampy, unstable ground safe for supporting piers. Nevertheless, the bridge went there. Politics won out over cost. (Our governor was from Kennett.) At a cost of millions, connecting highways had to be built to Dyersburg, which had not interstate, and to I-55 near Hayti.

That was the one major effort to build a bridge and secure a second interstate highway (I-24) to serve the Cape Girardeau-Scott City area. Nevertheless, this newspaper urged through the remaining 1960s and 1970s that a bridge be built across the Mississippi River in or near Cape Girardeau. The State Highway Department was less than enthusiastic, saying a bridge here was many years in the future.

It was not until Paul Ebaugh and then John Oliver were appointed to the Missouri State Highways and Transportation Commission that the move for a traffic bridge really got off the ground. The people of this area owe them a great debt of thanks. The Missourian's battle in those earlier years had been rewarded.

JOHN L. BLUE

Cape Girardeau

EDITOR'S NOTE: John Blue is a former longtime editor of the Southeast Missourian.