EAST CAPE GIRARDEAU, Ill. -- As part of her 17-year job as office manager at Karpet Korner, Mary Martin drives across the Mississippi River bridge six or seven times a day running errands.

It's not the high point of her day.

If the traffic's not backed up, causing her to wait as much as half an hour sometimes, there's the not-so-fleeting thought in the back of her mind that the 74-year-old bridge may not be in the best of shape.

"It certainly doesn't look very safe," Martin said. "But I just say a little prayer and get on across."

The number of prayers uttered on that bridge are probably immeasurable. It's the fear that the bridge isn't safe -- which the state strongly says is unfounded -- combined with the state's work to keep it safe until the new bridge is finished next year, that has businesses in East Cape Girardeau grousing about lost profits.

Even at Karpet Korner, on the Illinois side, the foot traffic is down, Martin said.

"It's been a noticeable difference," Martin said. "We still have a lot of customers in Illinois and Kentucky, but we have noticed a decrease in our Missouri customers. There's really no other reason than the bridge."

It may all be perception, business owners and state transportation officials say. While work progresses on the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, the Missouri Department of Transportation recently learned that the existing bridge is deteriorating faster than they thought.

That prompted inspections and work on the bridge, including adding clip angles installed to the bottom of the bridge, which are brackets used for extra reinforcement. That work often forced the bridge to be reduced to one lane, which caused longer waits to get across.

Phyllis Duffell, who recently opened Courtney's restaurant in East Cape Girardeau, said they have seen a drop-off in business since the bridge problems came to light.

"They were saying that they didn't want to cross the bridge if it was in bad shape," she said. "The fact is that it isn't."

One customer who showed up recently told Duffell he couldn't talk some friends into coming across the bridge to eat because of how bad the bridge was.

While normally Courtney's, formerly called Joey's, saw about 200 customers a day, it has been reduced to about 50, Duffell said. It had been "pitiful" she said, until last Thursday, when things started to pick back up.

"Having to wait to cross has hurt us, too," she said. "We want to spread the word that the bridge is OK. We're trying to get our business started. It didn't come at a good time."

Buy and Save owner Roger Birk said that his business, which sells furniture and giftware, has been somewhat affected, too, though he said it's hard to gauge how much because he usually sees a slowdown in the summer anyway.

"I know there are some people who aren't coming across the bridge because of those reasons, but it's hard to say it's a lot," Birk said. "I'm looking out the door right now and there's a car going by every second. There's still heavy traffic. But as far as the whole bridge collapsing, I'm not worried about that happening."

Missouri Department of Transportation area engineer Scott Meyer said no one should be worried about that.

"The bridge is safe, no one should question that," Meyer said. "We inspect it several times a year to do repairs in order to keep it that way. Unfortunately, when you do repairs on a 75-year-old bridge, you have to close some lanes."

Meyer said they have attempted to do bridge repairs outside of peak travel hours, but that hasn't always been possible.

"I can understand the fears, perhaps, but if you really look at what we've said, we're staying on top of it and doing the necessary repairs," he said. "The only cause for worry would be if we weren't doing that."

Meyer said about 14,000 vehicles travel the bridge daily.

Meyer suggested that the inconvenience will be eliminated once the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge is finished with its two, 12-foot lanes in either direction.

"It will be quite a departure from what's out there now," he said.

The new bridge is expected to be finished late next year. Meyer said he couldn't promise that more repairs wouldn't be necessary. That could lead to more talk that the bridge isn't safe and more waits on the bridge.

"I don't foresee any repairs coming up, but you never know," he said.

What danger?

If some residents are worried, others don't see the bridge as dangerous.

"I assume that if MoDOT says it's safe, it's good to go," said Joe Belote of Cape Girardeau. "It may not look like much, but if the state says it's OK, it's OK by me."

Robert Knupp of McClure, Ill., agreed.

"It bothers some, but not me," he said after eating lunch at Courtney's. "That's why you've got those guys working on it, so it stays safe. I don't really even see it as an issue."

But some do, said Jack Guetterman, co-owner of Guetterman Motors in East Cape Girardeau, adding that bridge work and concerns about safety have disrupted his business too.

"People are nervous about getting on the bridge," Guetterman said. "And what hurts is the Missouri people, because Illinois people are going to use the bridge no matter what it's like, but Missouri people will just go somewhere else."

That's true, at least for the Bi-State Southern service station in Cape Girardeau at 407 Morgan Oak. The manager, Scott Nanny, said that business has never been better and that he believes most of their customers come from Illinois.

Regardless, Guetterman thinks when the new bridge is done it will draw more customers to his lot.

"It's going to be a lot nicer," he said. "It's probably worth the wait and some of the trouble it's causing. I can't say anything bad about it, I'm glad they're doing it."

Martin, the office manager at Karpet Korner, agreed.

"The new bridge will do nothing but help our business," she said. "We just have to tough it out and wait for the new one."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137