MORE OF NEW ROUTE 3 IN ILLINOIS OPENS

THEBES, Ill. -- Good weather has accelerated the scheduled opening of another section of relocated Route 3 south of Thebes, the Illinois Department of Transportation said.

Jim Borgsmiller, engineer with the department's bureau of construction at Carbondale, said the one-half-mile section of relocated highway from near Jaco City to Twente Crossing Road will be opened to traffic today. A spokesman at the project site said the highway was to be opened between 7 and 8 this morning.

Borgsmiller said dry weather the past two weeks enabled the contractor to speed up work on the highway.

"The project is moving along faster than we anticipated last month," he said. "After the southern end of the new highway is opened this week, we expect the final section of roadway -- from the Thebes exit southward about 1 1/2 miles -- will be ready to open in another one and one-half weeks."

In May, the department did not expect the entire stretch of new highway between Thebes and Twente Crossing Road to be opened until early August.

Becky Schaefer, department resident on the project, said motorists can expect delays and one-way traffic today while the contractor ties in the new highway with the existing pavement north of Twente Crossing Road.

She said: "Work will be going on at each end of the southern end of the new highway where it will tie into the existing pavement. We have to put down about 14 inches of asphalt pavement where the south end of the new highway ties in with the existing roadway. It may take a day or two to get all of it down. If it does, the final dress-coating of asphalt won't be put down until Monday."

Schaefer said there will be delays today caused by one-way traffic at the transition points where the new and existing highway are being joined together.

"There will also be a pretty good bump where the two roadways join until the final coat of asphalt is down, so motorists should be ready to slow down. Signs will be up warning of one-way traffic, and flaggers will be warning motorists of the work ahead," she said.

Schaefer said a lot of work will remain after the entire section of new highway is opened later this month. When old Route 3 is closed the contractor will begin construction of the approach to a private road from the new highway to a residence on the west side of the intersection of Rock Springs Road. When that road is completed, Schaefer said a grade will be built to connect the west side of Rock Springs Road with the new highway.

"Once we've completed that intersection, the contractor will backfill and place rock along parts of the right of way, and seed the hillside slopes. The seeders and the lane stripers started working Wednesday," Schaefer said. "Until all of the work is completed along the right of way, motorists should drive carefully and watch for workers and equipment."

The work is the final phase of a three-phase project begun in the late 1980s. It involved replacing a total of 7.5 miles of highway that was constructed between 1932 and 1935, and has been functionally obsolete for more than 20 years.

The first two phases -- intersection and bridge work at Thebes and a 1.8-mile scenic highway along the Mississippi River from near Gale to Thebes -- were completed during the first three years of the project. The third phase from Thebes south to Twente Crossing Road began two years ago. It was delayed a number of times by wet weather and the closure of Route 3 north of Gale in 1993 by surface water from last year's flood.

Later this summer work is expected to begin on a major project to raise sections of Routes 146 and 3 in the East Cape Girardeau-McClure area to prevent water from covering the roadway when the Mississippi River is above flood stage.