Weeeeeeeeeeeee…….

Four lanes? This will be a 24/7 traffic jam–from Day One.

I have never seen anything so exciting in my life.

Looks sort of like the bridge at Cape Girardeau, MO

Wasn’t this bridge supposed to be a twin to the MLK. I thought this was supposed to carry traffic one way while the MLK took traffic the other. Oh well. As long as it re-routes 70 it can’t hurt.

Although it would have been nice to have additional lanes, any relief for the poplar street bridge will help drivers.

I was hoping to see how the bridge would connect to interstate 70 and the Illinois side. Anything to help with congestion on 70 is alright by me.

Why only four lanes? Why? This makes no sense! No foresight! Damon Scott Hynes is correct, this will become in a very short time, a traffic jam. Think about how it will be, when the Ill. side becomes more residential and more drivers are crossing in 5 to 10 years. Also, it looks like once again no lane for pedestrians or bicyclists to cross safely. The traffic jam will now be redirected to north of the city. Great job to the people who planned this one.

Don’t like the bridge design. A good truss type bridge would have done the job and probably cost a lot less. Additionally, at least two more lanes are needed. Why build a bridge that is obsolete before its built?

Cool! But Elmer’s right….come on down to Cape Girardeau. We’ve already got a bridge like this….

Ridiculous. Why would anyone want to go the East Saint Louis? We should have had the Casino Queen and the strip clubs pay for this bridge. They probably could have done it quicker and cheaper.

Now THAT’s progress! Them Missouruh and Illinoise politician fellers got together and came up with a real genuwine so-lution to the traffic problems downtown.

They even put 2 whole lanes going in EACH direction. Woooo-Weee!

Eat your heart out, Austin, TX!!!

Real pretty and all but it looks like the bridge just terminates on both ends. How are the ramps to I-70 set up? The poplar street has twice as many lanes but gets junked up by 20mph, single ramps carrying two different interstates.

Conversely, the ramps aren’t too bad on the MLK, at least if you discount the traffic lights. But they’re going to fix that by removing lanes. That will be so helpful.

Seriously? Where is our sense of style? I mean this is the kind of bridge they would build in Cape Girardeau. Boooorr-iiiing.

To answer the comment about peddestrian and bicycle lanes. This is an interstate highway. Your not allowed to walk or ride a bicycle on it. Not every road needs to be a bicicle route.

MODOT & IDOT…please listen to your taxpayers…more lanes required…4 lanes would have been sufficient in the 1950’s…how does it connect on either side to existing roads?

Is the suspension design cheaper, better than standard iron truss designs? The suspension version looks imposiible to add more lanes later…like the day after it’s finished.
??? Excited about the bridge but confused as to why it is being so under built…If it’s money…at least make it expandable in the future with a second deck…

As most of you should recall, the original proposal was for 8 lanes, and the state of MO pretty much put a stop to it because they wouldn’t do anything except demand that it become a toll bridge.

A truss design is viable for relatively short spans, but as the main span increases in length, one of the suspension designs becomes required. By the way, it’s not a suspension bridge, it’s called cable stayed. It’s also much cheaper to build a cable stayed bridge than a truss bridge.

Who did they hire to design this bridge? Bridges-R-Us? That is the most generic thing I’ve ever seen. It’s an embarrassment. This bridge will be with us, in Pils prints, the city’s image, for a very long time to come. Can we seriously not afford to make it look modern and exciting? Personally, I think looking good, and having a good sense of style attracts people and business, and that applies to a city’s architecture as well.

It may get by with just 4 lanes for a short time & until the Poplar smashes into the river. Then they’ll wish they planned better.

They size it small (4 lanes each way) so they can have something to upgrade a few years later. Job security and constant building projects, the hallmarks of bureaucracy.