EDITOR'S NOTE: Efforts are continuing to secure funding -- at least enough to permit the letting of bids and start construction -- for a new Cape Girardeau bridge over the Mississippi River. Here is the text of a letter sent March 20 to Rodney Slater, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration in Washington, D.C. The letter was signed by four members of Congress from Missouri: Bill Emerson, Pat Danner, Harold Volkmer and Karen McCarthy. Each has a bridge project in his or her district. Danner and McCarthy are interested in a new bridge over the Missouri River in Kansas City to replace the Chouteau Bridge. Volkmer is interested in a new bridge over the Mississippi River at Hannibal. And Emerson is pushing for funding for the bridge in Cape Girardeau.

The "innovative funding proposal" referred to in the letter is a combination of funding allocations and use of leftover emergency flood-repair funds that were previously authorized. A Senate highway funding bill specifies that a portion of the emergency funds will be used for the Hannibal bridge, freeing up startup money for the Cape Girardeau bridge. However, the funding approach in the House is to avoid designating specific highway projects. Rather, the House version allocates funding to the states, which then must choose which projects to construct. Missouri officials have indicated a willingness to designate funds for the three bridge projects. Illinois officials, however, have said they won't contribute any undesignated funds to the Cape Girardeau bridge.

How the funding issues will be resolved remains to be seen. The following letter, however, outlines some of the considerations:

Dear Mr. Slater:

We urge you, with our heartiest support and strongest encouragement, to approve the innovative funding proposal submitted to the Federal Highway Administration by the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department on August 30, 1995. The proposal will allow Missouri to meet the pressing need of replacing three obsolete and seriously substandard bridges -- the Cape Girardeau and Hannibal bridges across the Mississippi River and Chouteau Bridge across the Missouri River in Kansas City.

The innovative funding packages combines federal, state and local funds to allow for realization of these critical projects. Missouri and Illinois will supplement federal discretionary bridge funds with state monies and funds from their regular allocation of federal monies. In addition, Kansas City has committed up to $10 million, and Cape Girardeau has committed $11 million of local monies for their respective bridges.

This federal/state/local partnership demonstrates the kind of new approaches to the financing of large projects that you have espoused during your administration and that you well recognize will be needed to meet the nation's extensive infrastructure needs.

These bridges can be described only as severely inadequate. By the FHWA's own rating system, the sufficiency ratings are 0.0 for Cape Girardeau, 3.3 for Chouteau and 8.0 for Hannibal. This signifies serious deficiencies. These bridges fall far short of providing modern transportation service. The Chouteau Bridge is vital in light of the traffic demands of a thriving urban Kansas City; the Hannibal Bridge is the obsolete bottleneck that prevents developments of the recently designated Interstate 72 that will cross the Mississippi River at Hannibal; the Cape Girardeau bridge, with is 15 mph posted speed limit for trucks, precludes development of Highways 34/74 as modern transportation links for transport of regional goods and commerce.

Underwater inspections identified serious scour around one of the main river piers at the Hannibal bridge caused by the great 1993 floods and confirmed further scour resulting from 1995 flooding; such scouring threatens the stability of this pier. The Cape Girardeau bridge, which lies directly within the New Madrid seismic zone, was not designed to withstand an earthquake of any magnitude. The Chouteau Bridge has a seven-ton load limit, which precludes commercial truck traffic. Its useful life is estimated to be only three years, and its condition required closure for 53 days this summer while repairs were made.

Reasons abound to support replacement of all three bridges. The undersigned members of the Missouri congressional delegation believe the innovative funding proposal submitted by the state is an excellent means to accomplish this goal. Of the 45 bridges that cross the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois or the Missouri River within Missouri, 14 are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete by federal standards. The financial burden is extreme for replacement. This funding package will provide the means to solve three of the most urgent bridge needs and help fulfill the federal and state responsibility to provide safe, adequate highways to Missouri citizens.