RIVER BRIDGE'S FUTURE IS MUDDLED BY I-66

When motorists travel across the Mississippi River on the Cape Girardeau bridge, they are concerned about their safety. Being on the aging, narrow span can be frightening, especially when confronting a large truck. And when two large trucks pass on the bridge, there are only inches to spare. On occasion the outside mirrors on some vehicles are clipped, and on one occasion injuries from such an encounter nearly cost the life of a truck driver after shards from his mirror struck his neck.

The need for a new bridge is evident to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Department as well. The department has been working to secure funding and has put a new bridge across the river on its priority schedule. A major consideration, however, is how Illinois will pay for its half of the bridge. The neighboring state has been less enthusiastic about the bridge project than Missouri, mainly because Southern Illinois is so sparsely populated.

In addition to a new bridge, there also is a need for improved highways east and west from and to Cape Girardeau. A highway link with Paducah to the east and with both Springfield and Jefferson City to the west have long been identified as high priorities.

While the bridge and highway improvements on both sides of the Mississippi are considered both needed and feasible, these projects have been overshadowed somewhat by a good deal of attention that has been paid to the so-called I-66 project. This idea envisions a superhighway from the East Coast to the West Coast -- passing, of course, through Cape Girardeau. What started as a feasible effort to improve highway access to Cape Girardeau grew like Topsy.

The project's potential has been severely undercut by a federal study costing nearly $2 million. The study's final report, issued within the past few weeks, concludes that the I-66 project isn't feasible. Nor does I-66 have the support of state highway officials in Missouri or Illinois. Nor does the study establish the route of the proposed project through Cape Girardeau. It might just as easily go farther south, say from Paducah to Sikeston.

While I-66 isn't likely to ever be taken seriously by states or the federal government, there is still a need for a coordinated effort to promote highway access to and from Cape Girardeau. But the I-66 scheme won't go away. In spite of the negative findings of the federal study, proponents have redoubled their efforts to make it appear the project still has a future. And this effort comes at a cost.

The first cost is that it detracts from realistic projects that might be ignored or put aside if the spotlight continues to be on the unlikely superhighway. The second cost is more practical. The I-66 project is seeking and, in some cases, obtaining tax dollars to fund what amounts to little more than a public-relations campaign. Even the Cape Girardeau City Council voted recently to spend $5,000 tax dollars to hire Walt Wildman, executive director of I-66 Project Inc., to lobby for the highway. What many taxpayers need to know is whether the city intends to make other financial commitments to support highway projects that have some likelihood of being constructed. Or has the city put all its lobbying eggs in the I-66 basket?

One councilman said continued funding the I-66 project was a good thing to do because it had been approved by previous councils. But that was before a costly federal study concluded the I-66 project wasn't feasible. Moreover, city officials were warned before they voted to hire a lobbyist that their action could jeopardize the highway department's support for the new bridge.

How long the I-66 project can continue to feed at the trough of taxpayer support isn't known. But elected officials who continue to donate funds for travel expenses for the I-66 Project's director and some colorful brochures need to question whether they are getting their money's worth. If they don't, taxpaying voters certainly ought to raise those questions.