The Missouri Department of Transportation damaged part of the road construction near Jackson’s new roundabout while trying to redesign it, but the damage is scheduled to be repaired next week.

MoDOT area engineer Brian Okenfuss said Tuesday crews tried to remove the raised separating island in the middle of the road near the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department just north of the roundabout.

“We’re kind of re-evaluating the design there,” he said.

Instead of having the raised portion, he said, the roadway will be striped instead. But the raised island couldn’t be removed easily by road crews.

“They were a little more attached than we anticipated,” Okenfuss said. “The other issue is since it was attached so tightly, we were damaging more of the pavement than we anticipated.”

He said crews will need stronger machinery to finish the island’s removal before patching and striping the underlying roadway.

But that also will have to wait because cold weather has made the repairs unfeasible.

“We don’t want to just throw some mix in there that’s going to come out,” Okenfuss said. “With the weather well below 32 degrees, that’s not a good temperature to be pouring [material].”

He said forecasts call for more suitable weather sometime next week, at which time the section of road will be shut down overnight and traffic detoured so crews can finish the repairs.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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