The on-again, off-again discussion on whether or not to add pedestrian walk and bike areas along the U.S. Highway 80 bridge, that spans the Mississippi River, is bordering on the ridiculous.
Ever since the bridge was closed to vehicles in 1998, there have been a number of initiatives to convert portions of the bridge into a pedestrian area. Those efforts, for one reason or another simply slipped away without gaining much support or footing.
Effort after effort has failed apparently due to the lack of support from local and state leaders and strong opposition from the Kansas City Southern Railroad, which sends hundreds of cars across the bridge daily.
But this time there might be a little hope in getting this much-need project going again.
The Friends of the Vicksburg Bridge, a secret group of local residents who continue to hide their identities, continues to work behind the scenes to garner support from local leaders, state representatives and lobby those on the Vicksburg Bridge Commission.
Unfortunately though, it appears even the bridge commissioners, who you would think would be for a project that further utilized the publically-owned bridge and added tremendous value to Vicksburg’s water front, are buckling in their already lukewarm support.
As we said earlier, the discussion seems ridiculous in the first place.
For one, the bridge is owned by Warren County. It is ours and local leaders should openly decide its future use.
While the money from Kansas City Southern Railroad is much-appreciated and their input valuable, we must remember they do not own the bridge and depend upon it heavily for their business.
It is understandable for the decision makers to worry about the public’s well-being and placing a pedestrian area on a bridge that also supports rail traffic.
But, this is not the first project of its kind. It has been done in other locations and there is currently a massive project ongoing in Memphis that is heavily funded by the federal government.
As with everything, we expect our leaders to weigh the pros and cons of every decision, but this seems an easy one.
We do not expect the funds to be made available today, nor do we expect construction to begin next week.
What we do hope for is strong, vocal support from our local leaders for this project and the process for securing the needed funds and grants to begin.