Location, location, location. Bill Ewing spent 28 years as a banker and knows what traffic means to business success.

Lots of traffic finds its way past Whiskey Rebellion, his store in Winthrop, Mo., located in the late afternoon shadow of the Amelia Earhart Bridge. Truck engines rumble just outside the front door and shake the chardonnays.

One problem, though. The traffic these days comes in two kinds, motionless in a line waiting for access to the bridge’s single lane or racing toward the end of the departing line to avoid a long wait.

Neither case bodes well for the store’s business, nor does the fact that across-the-bridge residents of Atchison, Kan., the bulk of the clientele, face two traffic waits to patronize Whiskey Rebellion.

Business is off 40 percent since the lane closure in early April. At best, the disruption will last another two months. Planning for the best seems foolishly optimistic.

So Mr. Ewing, regular in his communication with departments of transportation on both sides of the Missouri River, let a sign out front speak to his desire for action on bridge repairs. It is a part-playful, part-serious, civically engaged exercise of free expression.

It reads simple “Bridge Complaints,” then gives telephone numbers for the Missouri and Kansas transportation offices.

The business owner smiles in explanation. “If they have some time complaints like I do, maybe while they’re sitting here in line, they’ll pick up the cell phone and call,” he says.

The man is not a rabble-rouser by nature. A native of South Texas, he moved every four years or so to accommodate his father’s service as a border patrolman. Mr. Ewing’s wife, Marilyn, was raised in Manhattan, Kan., and that’s how they ended up settling in Kansas.

He presided at an Atchison bank and took part in civic affairs, helping organize the annual Sportsman’s Duck Dinner. When Mr. Ewing left banking — “It was time to get out,” he says — the man saw possibility in Whiskey Rebellion, a successful enterprise that had been on the market about a year. The Ewings bought it nearly seven years ago.

Of course, they knew changes would come for the bridge named after Atchison’s famed aviatrix. Built in 1934, the bridge’s two lanes barely spread 24 feet wide, a picture of functional obsolescence.

Bill and Marilyn stayed in tune with planning for the new bridge, set to be under construction by next year. Its Missouri approach will wipe out some buildings in Winthrop, though Whiskey Rebellion and many neighboring businesses will remain, to be accessed by a frontage road.

During the construction period, which will run into 2012, maintenance will continue on the existing span, say the states’ transportation departments. The immediate concern arises from unease with the bridge’s gusset plates, which are steel sheets that fuse bridge beams. Kimberly Qualls of the Kansas Department of Transportation says officials restricted the bridge to a single down-the-middle lane as a safety precaution.

When state inspectors finish a report on the extent of the troublesome plates, contractors will have 60 days to finish the repairs, she says.

Watch this, Mr. Ewing says on the front porch of his business. The driver of a car heading west on U.S. Highway 59 sees the tail end of the line of vehicles going over the bridge. The man guns it in anticipation of beating the temporary stop light. (On the Atchison side, the temporary light stands in close proximity to two permanent lights and a rail crossing, making for a real traffic stew.)

Mr. Ewing watches this scene repeatedly during the day. “I know they’re trying to be safe as far as the bridge is concerned,” he says, “but they’ve created a few situations that may not be quite so safe.”

Conditions are at their worst between 3:30 and 5:30 in the afternoon, the vehicles sometimes backing up through the second of the road’s sweeping curves. Most times, Midwestern courtesy prevails and drivers allow spaces where Whiskey Rebellion customers can pull onto the roadway, but not always.

If Mr. Ewing grinds an ax, he does so modestly and with a modicum of good humor. The man accepts the need for safety; he and family members drive the bridge between home and work. And for the prosperity of Atchison, he welcomes the inevitability of a new bridge.

But he owns a business and knows a self-reliant life begins with defending personal interests. The state won’t.

“Any time any government agency is involved, everything kind of slows down to a snail’s pace,” he says. “I would like for them to light a fire under somebody.”

Maybe the sign out front, with conveniently provided phone numbers, can provide the spark.

Ken Newton can be reached at kenn@npgco.com.