Volume 52 · 679
Public Law 75–359
To authorize the Cairo Bridge Commission, or the successors of said commission, to acquire by purchase, and to improve, maintain, and operate a toll bridge across the Mississippi River at or near Cairo, Illinois.
Approved June 14, 1938
Statutory text
AN ACT
To authorize the Cairo Bridge Commission, or the successors of said commission, to acquire by purchase, and to improve, maintain, and operate a toll bridge across the Mississippi River at or near Cairo, Illinois.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That in order to
Mississippi River.
Cairo Bridge Commission, purchase and improvement of toll bridge authorized, at Cairo, Ill.
facilitate interstate commerce, improve the postal service, and more adequately provide for military and other purposes, and to secure to the public the use of the hereinafter described bridge free of tolls as promptly as possible, the Cairo Bridge Commission (hereinafter sometimes called the commission), a body corporate and politic created by an Act of Congress approved April 13, 1934, and its successors
and assigns, be, and are hereby, authorized to acquire by purchase at a price to be approved by the Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads of the Department of Agriculture and thereafter to repair, reconstruct, rebuild, enlarge, renew, or replace in accordance with the provisions of the Act entitled “An Act to regulate the construction of bridges over navigable waters”, approved March 23,
1906, the existing bridge across the Mississippi River at or near Cairo, Illinois, and the approaches thereto, which was duly constructed in accordance with the provisions of the Act entitled “An Act granting the consent of Congress to the Cairo Bridge and Terminal Company to construct, maintain, and operate bridges across the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Illinois”, approved April
2, 1926, and to maintain and operate said existing bridge subject
Operation and maintenance.
to the conditions and limitations contained in this Act.
Sec. 2.
The commission and its successors and assigns are hereby
Tolls authorized.
authorized to fix and charge tolls for transit over said bridge in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
Sec. 3.
The commission is hereby authorized to provide for the
Bond issue to cover costs, etc.
payment of the cost of said bridge and its approaches and the necessary lands, easements, and appurtenances thereto by an issue or issues of negotiable bonds of the commission. The details of such
Details, form, etc., of bonds.
bonds, their form and manner of execution, and the sale and issuance of such bonds shall be governed by the provisions of section 4 of said Act approved April 13, 1934, and such bonds and any premium to
be paid for retirement thereof before maturity shall be payable solely from the sinking fund provided in accordance with this Act, and such bonds may be secured by a trust agreement as provided in said
Security.
section 4 of said Act of April 13, 1934. The cost of the bridge shall
Items included in cost.
include the purchase price, the cost of repairs, reconstruction, or enlargement if such repairs, reconstruction, or enlargement are ordered prior to the sale of any bonds, for the acquisition of the bridge, financing charges, interest during any period of disuse before completion of repairs, reconstruction, or enlargement, cost of traffic estimates and of engineering and legal expenses, administrative expenses and such other expenses as may be incident to such acquisition and to the financing herein authorized.
Sec. 4.
In fixing the rates of toll to be charged for the use of said
Items included in cost.
bridge the same shall be so adjusted as to provide a fund sufficient to pay for the reasonable cost of maintaining, repairing, and operating the bridge and its approaches under economical management, and to provide a sinking fund sufficient to pay the principal and interest of such bonds as the same shall fall due and the redemption or repurchase price of all or any thereof redeemed or repurchased before maturity as herein provided. All tolls and other revenues from said bridge are hereby pledged to such uses and to the application thereof as in this Act required.
Sec. 5.
All of the provisions of sections 4 and 5 of said Act of April 13, 1934, relating to the bridge to be constructed, to the bonds to be issued and to the trust agreement to be entered into under the authority of said Act, and relating to the collection of bridge tolls and to the application of such tolls, shall apply to the bridge to be acquired and to the bonds to be issued under the authority of this Act.
Sec. 6.
After payment of the bonds issued under this Act and interest thereon, or after a sinking fund sufficient for such payment shall have been provided and shall be held for that purpose, the commission shall deliver deeds or other suitable instruments for the conveyance of the interests of the commission in and to the bridge, that part within the State of Missouri to the State of Missouri or any municipality or agency thereof as may be authorized by or pursuant to law to accept the same (hereinafter referred to as the Missouri interests) and that part within Illinois to the State of Illinois or any municipality or agency thereof as may be authorized by or pursuant to law to accept the same (hereinafter referred to as the Illinois interests), under the conditions that the bridge shall thereafter be free of tolls and be properly maintained, operated, and repaired by Missouri interests and the Illinois interests, as may be
Operation by Commission if either State fails to accept.
agreed upon; but if either the Missouri or the Illinois interests shall not be authorized to accept and shall not accept the same under such conditions, then the bridge shall continue to be owned, maintained, operated, and repaired by the commission, and the rates of toll shall be so adjusted as to provide a fund not to exceed the amount necessary for the proper maintenance, repair, and operation of the bridge and its approaches under economical management until such time as both the Missouri interests and the Illinois interests should be authorized to accept, and shall accept such conveyance under such
Dissolution of Commission upon conveyance.
conditions. The commission shall not be dissolved until it shall have conveyed all property owned by it in accordance with the provisions
of this Act and the Act of April 13, 1934, and thereupon the commission shall be dissolved in the manner provided by said Act of April 13, 1934.
Sec. 7.
The right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act is hereby expressly reserved.
Approved, June 14, 1938.