Residents view pedestrian bridge as eyesore; city manager says it's designed to rust

South-side residents of Cape Girardeau call it an eyesore.

City officials agree the pedestrian bridge over Highway 74 is not pretty.

The steel structure rusts by design, providing a protective coating, city manager Scott Meyer said.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) owns and maintains the span, Meyer said.

Constructed in 2004, the $278,000 structure was paid for entirely with federal highway money.

The steel pedestrian bridge that was installed in 2004 over Highway 74 is rusted by design as seen Thursday in Cape Girardeau.Fred Lynch

The bridge was a topic of discussion among city officials and residents at a recent meeting at Shawnee Park Center.

Koreena Woodson, a south-side resident who co-chairs the Authentic Voices neighborhood group, summarized the view of many of her neighbors about the pedestrian bridge. "We hate it. It's ugly," she said.

Meyer said, "We agree it is ugly. It is just a matter of how to make it less ugly."

Meyer led the district office of MoDOT at the time the agency approved plans for the bridge in 2003.

The goal, he said in 2004, was to try to "bridge" the neighborhood that was divided by the new Highway 74.

Highway 74 was built in the mid-1990s to funnel traffic across an east-west corridor of the city. At the same time, it cut off residential streets, turning them into dead ends. Before the pedestrian span was built, some residents would jump chain-link fences lining the highway rather than cross at traffic lights at Sprigg Street and West End Boulevard, five blocks apart.

Neighbors said they don't like the rusty look of the bridge.

That message isn't lost on city officials.

"I was part of making the eyesore. Now I am part of the effort to clean it up," Meyer said last week.

But there is no easy solution to improve the looks of the span, he said.

It is not feasible to paint it, Meyer said.

If the city were to paint it, MoDOT would require the city to maintain the structure, Meyer said. The rusting steel would have to be repainted every five years, he said.

Paint would not adhere well to the rusting surface, Meyer said.

The city manager said one possibility is to install magnetized "Welcome to Cape Girardeau" signs on the structure that would hide some of the rust.

Replacing the bridge would be costly, he said. A new bridge could carry a price tag of $500,000 or more, Meyer said.

Neighborhood resident Betty Mosley, also a member of the Authentic Voices group, suggested the city "plant beautiful roses and flowers" to dress up the structure.

Meyer said he has spoken with an artist in an effort to come up with a feasible way to dress up the structure.

But at this point, he said, there are higher priorities for improving the neighborhood than beautifying the bridge.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641