As southbound traffic spills from the South Park Bridge onto 14th Avenue South, a mural is visible on the side of a discount food store in the neighborhood's business district. Next to the word "livelihood" a likeness of the bridge is painted - it's akin to how vital most residents feel the structure is to the community, said Tim McNeil, a South Park resident and property owner.

But South Park residents and business owners say the uncertainty over funding sources to fix the damaged bridge, an important corridor into the neighborhood, is choking the economic growth of the community.

Though a replacement design has been studied and selected, construction is largely unfunded, said Tim Lane, project manager for King County Roads Division. It won't likely survive another Nisqually-size earthquake, he said.

"There's a disincentive to invest in the business core of our neighborhood because no one knows what's going to happen to the bridge," said McNeil. "It's very, very worrisome to business owners in South Park."

McNeil worked on a citizens' advisory board to the King County Department of Transportation for five years studying alternatives and finally selecting a bascule bridge as the preferred alternative earlier this year. A final environmental impact statement and design should be completed by 2009.

But with a plan but no money, some wonder if it will end up just being a dead end in the neighborhood.

"All those questions have worked against long-term investment here," said McNeil.

Mostly, funding to fix the bridge has been held up by jurisdictional problems, said Lane.

Tukwila owns half the bridge and the county owns the other half. It crosses the Duwamish River and connects East Marginal Way with South Park's business district on 14th Avenue South, near Boeing Plant No. 2. Most of South Park lies within the city of Seattle, but a strip of land along the southern portion of the bridge falls in unincorporated King County, nicknamed "the sliver by the river."

A replacement bridge will cost a little more than $100 million, said Lane. King County has pledged $10 million and Tukwila opted to dole out $3 million in exchange for no other obligations toward the project. The county is hoping to secure $15 to 20 million in federal funding and the city of Seattle has agreed to pitch in a yet-to-be-determined amount.

Most of the hope for the bridge lies within a regional transportation package that should be submitted to voters in fall of 2007.

"We have to keep pressing forward and hope for the best," said Lane.

A new South Park community advocacy group has formed to help secure funding from various other sources, said Geoff Belau, a South Park resident. But in the meantime, the uncertain future of the bridge has been stifling commercial growth in South Park, he said.

"A lot depends on the bridge being open," said Belau. "There's a lot of opportunity for new business but people are hesitant to invest there when they know one of the area's vital corridors is in jeopardy."

Property owner Sal Hernandez said he's been trying without luck for about seven months to lease his building on the corner of 14th Avenue South and South Cloverdale Street. He said there's no doubt that the indefinite fate of the bridge is holding up the process.

Because so many South Park businesses rely on the bridge to bring customers to their door, shutting it down could mean the end of the community's chances for a "viable business district," said Belau. A low-income community with a 40 percent Hispanic population, South Park has "ended up on the short end of the stick too many times," he said.

"We want to be able to buy locally and walk to grocery stores and restaurants," he said. "It's a problem and it feels like we are fighting an uphill battle."

Community surveys conducted by King County found that roughly 20 percent of the business owners on 14th Avenue South said they would suffer "extreme hardship because they would lose the drive by traffic from the bridge," said Lane.

Bob Kent, owner of the Tire Factory located at the foot of the bridge on 14th, said most of the business owners in South Park feel they couldn't survive without the steady flow of customers the bridge provides.

"If it were to close, it be a total detriment to the businesses here," he said.

It's also an important regional freight route, said Lane. The bridge carries about 24,000 vehicles a day and about 10 million tons of freight a year.

If the bridge were shut down, engineers estimate the additional traffic would triple delay times on the First Avenue South Bridge during the morning and afternoon rush hour.

"The roads would become seriously congested," Lane said. "It would push the traffic elsewhere and become a real problem."

McNeil said the new advocacy group is trying to get the word out that fixing the bridge is beneficial to the entire region, not just the 4,000 residents of South Park.

"We view this as a critical element in the overall way to move goods and services in the south end," said McNeil. "It's hard to imagine the level of impact if it closed."