[6/10/04]Commission members responsible for the upkeep of the U.S. 80 Mississippi River Bridge outlined 15 options for the span’s future Wednesday, but delayed making a recommendation to Warren County supervisors until next month.

“We’re going to talk two more hours about this, maybe three,” Commissioner Bob Moss said. “I’m not saying we’re going to have a consensus in 30 days, but we need to have at least a healthy majority.”

The panel did agree to move ahead on roadway repairs, shoring up the concrete where it has deteriorated.

Supervisors appoint commission members and the five-member panel appears split 3-1 against resuming regular vehicular traffic on the 74-year-old bridge. The newest member, O.A. Williams, said he’s not up to speed on the issue. Williams, who had served on the county parks and recreation commission, was appointed Monday to fill the unexpired term of Patricia Segrest, who died last month.

Moss, chairman Max Reed and former chairman Winky Freeman, the three longest-serving members, say they may support emergency vehicles using the bridge when the Interstate 20 bridge is out of service, but are against restoring traffic flow as it existed before 1998.

Commissioner Ray Wade said he supports some way of letting the most local people use the bridge. He suggested opening it to traffic part time and to pedestrians at other times.

“I’ve got a problem with someone from Canada coming down and riding a bicycle across there when people in Warren County have no access,” Wade said.

Under current policy, anyone can obtain insurance coverage for a single event to use the bridge’s roadway. The Over The River Run is a charity event each fall, and Wade said perhaps it shouldn’t be allowed until a broader policy is adopted.

Warren County supervisors serving after World War II voted to buy the bridge from its private owners. Tolls on cars and trucks repaid the purchase price and were ended. Tolls remain on rail cars and utilities that use the bridge to pay maintenance costs.

Commissioners estimated that replacing 42 spans of concrete, or about 3/4 of a mile, where chunks have been falling off the bottom of the bridge could cost about $2 million.

Moss said the work is not optional.

“We’re fixing to go to work,” Wade said.

The list of options is basically unchanged. Commissioners also discussed some of the same obstacles. The two biggest are safety and liability associated with the half of the span in Louisiana. While Mississippi has limits on civil lawsuits against government entities, Louisiana does not.

Today, the bridge is covered under a $1 million county insurance policy, but only under the conditions that the only traffic on the bridge be for maintenance or occasional emergency vehicles. The insurance policy would also cover the bridge if it were converted into a pedestrian and bicycle park.

The commission previously sought insurance to cover the bridge for vehicular traffic, but the only companies that offered quotes were large companies such as Lloyd’s of London which would cost 50 cents for every dollar of coverage. That would mean that a $1 million policy would cost $500,000 per year.

Wade suggested contacting Delta and Madison Parish and offer to lease the Louisiana half of the bridge for $1 per year if they take the liability associated with that half, but it wasn’t clear if that would be legal and binding.

“If they want to use it, let them ante up some responsibility,” Wade said.

Commission members also discussed some of the more practical problems associated with some options such as how to clear pedestrians off the bridge in order to let emergency traffic through and traffic congestion that could result from opening the bridge for a detour route when the Interstate 20 bridge is closed.

“We’re not necessarily looking at the negatives to tell us what we can’t do, but to keep us from doing something foolish,” Reed said.

Warren County bought the bridge in 1947 for $7 million. Commission members entertained an offer to sell the bridge in 1997 to Kansas City Southern Railway, the principal user of the span, for $5.5 million, but turned it down after much public outcry.

For decades before the I-20 bridge opened 30 years ago, it was the only Mississippi River crossing here and is still the only railroad crossing between Memphis and Baton Rouge. It is also one of the most associated visible images of Vicksburg next to the Vicksburg National Military Park.

After the sell to KCS was aborted, the Vicksburg Bridge Commission sought and won a federal grant to convert the bridge into a park, but that plan was shot down by voters in a 1999 non-binding referendum. Supervisors, who will ultimately decide the fate of the span, also voted 4-1 to reopen the bridge for two-way traffic.

At the request of the commission, the county board rescinded that vote last month and has asked the commission to again make a recommendation for the bridge.

Today, there is no federal grant available to convert the bridge into a park, and it is not clear if bridge commission funds, about $6.5 million in reserves, can be used for that purpose. The 99-year lease between the commission and the railroad specifies that the per-car toll fees paid by KCS will be used for maintenance only.

Last month, 25,599 cars, or about 16 trains per day, crossed the bridge, generating about $96,000 in fees. Commission members have also recommended raising the per car toll from about $4 per car to $15 per car to pay expected expenses of repairs.

It is also not clear if utility rentals, about $150,000 annually, can be used for purposes other than maintenance. There are five utility lines, four fiber optic lines and a natural gas line, that run along the bridge.

The owners of those lines pay annual rent for use of the bridge, but those contracts do not specify how those funds can be spent, Bobby Bailess, attorney fot the Bridge Commission, said.

The commission will meet again at 9:30 a.m. July 14 at the Warren County Courthouse, but will not continue discussions about options for the bridge until the following week, on July 21. At least one member of the commission, chairman Reed, will be absent on July 14.