CHESTER, Ill. -- Traffic will be reduced to one lane on the Mississippi River bridge at Chester later this month as repair work resumes.

The Missouri Department of Transportation is overseeing the $4.66 million project to upgrade the bridge.

Traffic restrictions on the bridge will begin April 25 at the earliest, said Dale Kinneman, resident engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation at Park Hills.

Electronic traffic signals will be placed at either end of the bridge to control traffic flow, Kinneman said.

In addition to one-lane traffic, vehicles using the bridge on Route 51, including farm machinery, will be limited to 10 feet in width and 14 feet in height.

MoDOT is urging motorists to use extreme caution while repairs are under way on the bridge.

Repair work includes removing and recycling the lead-based paint, repainting the bridge and repairing the decking, Kinneman said.

He said the contractor, Global Construction Inc. of Holiday, Fla., is 75 percent complete on removing the paint and priming the bridge structure.

To remove the lead-based paint, workers have to enclose sections of the bridge and blast the paint off. The paint is captured and recycled.

"Probably the thing that slows us down the most is the weather," Kinneman said. "Moisture and wind conditions have major effects on being able to do this type of work. Everybody knows you can't paint in the rain."

And strong winds mean workers can't set up the necessary enclosures, he said.

"Traditionally, March and April are both windy and wet months, and we felt like it would be to the public's advantage to wait until the weather is good enough that the contractor will be able to make significant progress on the project," he said.

Weather permitting, the project should be completed by the beginning of September, Kinneman said. The project began last summer.

Kinneman said he hopes motorists will be patient while the work is done.

"When you shut a major river crossing down to one lane, you can't help but inconvenience people," he said. "But there's no other way to get the work done."

Once the old paint is stripped and the bridge structure primed, the bridge will have to be repainted.

In addition, the bridge decking and sections of the bridge's steel structure need to be repaired.

Once the deck is repaired, the concrete will be covered with a special type of epoxy to help seal the surface against water, salt and other materials.

According to 1996 traffic counts, the bridge carries an average of 6,200 vehicles daily between Chester and Perry County, Mo.