RECENT CONTRACT SHOWS STEADY BRIDGE PROGRESS

For the many people responsible over the years for espousing the need for a new Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau, progress comes in small, tantalizing morsels. The good news for these patient advocates is that the progress is tangible. This was most recently impressed upon local citizens by the news that land clearing will soon begin along the route leading from Interstate 55 to the planned bridge. We acknowledge this development as another sign that the bridge, which means a great deal to the future of this community, is making its sure-footed way from drawing board to reality.

Earlier this month, the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission awarded a contract for the demolition of 21 buildings along the bridge route. The highway department is in the process of acquiring the other property necessary for the route, a total of 134 tracts with a price tag in the millions. Obviously, while it is not bridge construction, this part of the project shouldn't be regarded as unimportant, nor should the relocation of residents in this path being taken lightly. Hopefully, the state has been able to placate property owners. Certainly, the importance of the project makes such inconvenience necessary.

At stake in this is a $90 million construction project that will relieve Cape Girardeau of a bridge that has served the region well but whose day has come and gone. Sixty-five years old, the river bridge is narrow, hazardous and outmoded. For purposes of economic development, safety and regional betterment, a new bridge, one that will stand far into the 21st century, is essential. Recent activity hints that it is on track; a highway official suggested last week that bridge construction could begin next year, with completion by 1997 or 1998.

After years of gazing into the future and imagining a new span, champions of the bridge project are gradually readjusting their thinking; tomorrow is not that far away, and the bridge will be a reality before they know it. We look forward to the day it is opened for traffic but for now content ourselves with the painstaking steps necessary to the process of such a large enterprise.