The immediate future of the U.S. 80 bridge over the Mississippi River is tied to establishing smoother relations with Kansas City Southern Railway, Vicksburg Bridge Commission chairman Robert Moss said Tuesday.

Moss said the commission remains &#8220in the throes” of negotiations with KCS over how much the primary customer of the county-owned franchise will pay to send its trains across the river.

In September, the commission set a $14 per-car rate to be effective in January, but KCS has continued to pay the previous rate of $4 per car for the first 125,000 cars per year and $3.75 for each car after that.

In April, the railroad sent payment at a rate of $3.89 per car after 125,000 cars, figures that perplexed the five people appointed by supervisors to manage bridge operations.

&#8220We need to have a 2006 type of relationship instead of a 1928 relationship,” Moss told members of the Vicksburg Kiwanis Club. Specifically, arbitration provisions need to be added to specify how to work through impasses, he said.

The bridge was privately built in 1930 and operated for the benefit of investors until after World War II when a county board bought it for about $5 million. Since then, it has operated on a break-even basis with tolls to pay off the debt and then fund maintenance.

Any upward movement in the rate the railroad actually pays will help pay for making repairs to the rails and concrete deck up and down the span, Moss said.

He said the commission has spent about $2 million on repairs in the last year, dropping its reserves from $7.5 million two years ago to $5.3 million now, attributed in part to both decaying infrastructure and the price of raw materials.

&#8220Our expenditures have exceeded the income,” Moss said, however adding that he feels the current account balance is &#8220safe.”

Aside from the railroad, Moss also spoke of the long-range future of the bridge, specifically studies under way to look at the effects of a pedestrian park along the now-closed roadway. The idea, discussed for nearly a decade, must be balanced to take into account the effects of time on the 76-year-old structure.

&#8220It’s being examined the best we can. But everything has another side to it,” Moss said, adding that a key factor in the study is likely to be the bridge’s construction.

As was the construction method of the era in which it was built, the bridge is held together with rivets and not nuts and bolts, Moss said, adding that the bridge has undergone 63 inches of pier movement since it was built in 1930.

Six months ago, the commission voted to begin applying for a new grant in earnest, designating Jimmy G. Gouras Urban Consulting Inc. to write the application and a feasibility study be done by ABMB Engineers.

The $50 million grant will be sought through the Mississippi Department of Transportation and, if approved, will originate from a $244.1 billion highway enhancement bill passed by Congress and signed by the president in August 2005.

At the same time, Moss said, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is seeking ways to stabilize the Interstate 20 bridge.

The results of that study have been awaited for almost two years, Moss said, and will likely guide the commission’s views on how best to preserve the U.S. 80 bridge next to it.

&#8220That study will have a parallel effect on what we do,” Moss said.

A plan for a pedestrian and bicycle park was proposed in 1999, but rejected by voters who favored reopening the bridge nearly 2-1. Five years later that directive was rejected by supervisors, who will ultimately control its fate.

KCS is on record opposing any plans for a park as a risk to public safety and a violation of lease terms. The rail company has pledged legal action if park planning is continued.