STL Business Journal
June 10, 2005 print edition
Missouri's top roadway official said the scope of the proposed $1.6 billion new bridge over the Mississippi River must be significantly downsized and made a tollway in order for it to be built. But the Illinois Department of Transportation is moving forward with demolition and other preliminary work and said a tollway has not been agreed to.
Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) Director Pete Rahn said the new bridge should not rely on the promise of possible federal funding and instead should seek other funding sources, such as making it a tollway. "The likelihood of Congress funding this entire project is very, very unlikely," Rahn said. "It's going to have to be a combination of revenue streams.... We don't get there without tolls."
Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) spokesperson Mike Claffey said IDOT has a different view. "We've never agreed we were in favor of tolls," Claffey said. "What we think we have to do is look at the scope and the budget and come up with a plan to build the bridge."
David Gillies, chief of staff for Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), said the highest amount the bridge could receive in the transportation bill currently before congress is $350 million.
Rep. Costello does not support a tollway for the new Mississippi River bridge, Gillies said. "He believes we can pay for it through the highway bill process."
The proposed eight-lane bridge to be located one mile north of the Martin Luther King Bridge has been in the planning stages for several years, but both states are waiting for passage of the transportation bill by Congress to determine how much funding will be available.
Federal estimates project truck traffic over the river in the St. Louis region will double by 2020 and average rush-hour delays on the Poplar Street bridge are expected to increase from 10 minutes to 55 minutes without a new bridge.
The proposed single-span cable-stay bridge is 2,000 feet long. In addition to the bridge, the Missouri portion of the project includes rerouting the northern interchange of highway 70 and building a new interchange where Interstates 55 and 64 meet. On the Illinois side, the project scope is much larger because more roadway has to be built to relocate Interstate 70 four miles, relocate Illinois Route 3 and reconstruct the tri-level I-70/64/55 interchange in East St. Louis.
Thirty five percent of the total project is in Missouri, and 65 percent is in Illinois. The states have set aside a combined $308 million in their state highway budgets to begin the preliminary work.
To date, Missouri has spent $26.5 million on engineering and design work, said Deanna Venker, area engineer for the city of St. Louis for MoDOT. Illinois has spent three times as much, according to Teresa Price, program development engineer for IDOT.
Although Rahn agrees a new bridge is needed over the Mississippi, he said the other roadway projects included with the bridge and the design of the bridge itself need to be re-evaluated.
"The existing plan is not realistic," Rahn said. "I think it's a fantasy." Rahn said the bridge will not be built unless the entire project is scaled down to under a billion dollars.
Rahn estimated that with inflation, the proposed $1.6 billion bridge would balloon to $2.4 billion over its 12 to 18-year construction schedule. The bridge is expected to take that long due to funding issues.
IDOT would not comment on what components of the bridge should change, but Claffey said the agency agrees with Rahn that changes may be necessary.
Meanwhile, Missouri is waiting to find out the amount allocated for the bridge in the transportation bill before doing any more preliminary work, Venker said.
Price said Illinois is moving forward with the premise that it will get funding from the reauthorization of the federal bill. IDOT has hired a consultant, Chicago-based D&T Communications, to handle community relations. IDOT also will open a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise resource center in East St. Louis this summer to provide information to minority businesses about the project.
The last federal transportation act expired in September 2003. In May, the Senate passed the Transportation Equity Act, calling for $295 billion to be spent over the next five years. The Senate bill earmarks $44 million for the Mississippi River bridge, and the House version passed earlier this year includes $6 billion for "mega projects" that are important to the nation as a whole.
Local proponents of the bridge said they're hopeful the Mississippi River bridge project would be a recipient of funding from that source. The bill now heads back to the Joint House/Senate Conference Committee.
Susan Stauder, vice president for infrastructure and public policy for the Regional Commerce and Growth Association, said the Mississippi River bridge project would be a likely recipient of the House's "mega projects" funding because of the new bridge's importance to interstate commerce.
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