Local Road Improvements, Chapter 2, New Mississippi River Bridge

What an amazing thing to watch how politics works. I haven't been around the world yet, so it's possible this has happened before, but it's a first for me. It's hard for me to imagine two states wrangling over the terms of a bridge as much as Illinois and Missouri have gone at it over the past months and years, but this is what's recently developed with our local "bridge expansion."

There is a strong will, both at the political and civilian level, to install a new bridge over the Mississippi River. The main 2 bridges that are currently used, the Poplar Street Bridge and the MLK (Martin Luther King) bridge, are frequently taxed out during the morning and afternoon rush hours. If there's lots of traffic now, we can only imagine where it will be in the coming years as the Metro East continues to grow.

Nonetheless, the will to pay for the bridge seems to be coming more from Illinois than Missouri. The reason is clear...Illinois motorists are the chief beneficiaries for the bridge. It's my opinion, however, that the benefit will be strong for Missouri business too, specifically for Downtown St. Louis. Therefore, it seems that both states should pony up significantly. Missouri has favored a toll bridge...let the drivers, who are mostly Illinoisians, pay for it each day, right?

Illinois was not as quikly in favor of a toll. In any case, on February 21, a 12-10 vote passed both states' support for the coupler bridge. What's next? Only time will tell, but if the toll feature comes back as a reality, a local radio celebrity on KMOX was known to say "look, just get it passed as a toll bridge, build it, then once it's in service and no one's using it because of the toll feature, the States will have to take over, the toll will be lifted, and we'll have our "toll-less" bridge. I disagree...what if the toll is not lifted and the new bridge continues to suffer from low traffic volumes? I think it's best to agree to a plan that will work going forward, not just in the short term.

Read more about the bridge on the official bridge website set up by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT), click