AFTER LONG FLOOD-RELATED DELAY, WORK BEGINS ON HIGHWAY 25

DUTCHTOWN -- After an 18-month delay caused by floods and wet weather, shoulder work on the west side of the new section of Highway 25 between Dutchtown and Blomeyer should be completed in mid-July.

No one will be happier about its completion than Missouri Highway and Transportation Department District 10 Engineer Bob Simpson at Sikeston.

Because there is no shoulder along the west side of the new section of highway, the highway department had to lower the speed limit to 30 mph between Dutchtown and Blomeyer as a safety precaution.

The new section of highway and bridge over the Diversion Channel was opened to traffic in November 1992. However, the southbound shoulder could not be completed until the contractor demolished the old pavement on the west side of the new highway to make room for the shoulder. As a result, there has been a dangerous sharp drop-off along the edge of the pavement.

The shoulder along the northbound lane was completed before the highway was opened.

Simpson said the work on the shoulder was supposed to have started in spring 1993, but wet weather followed by the flood of 1993, which caused the Diversion Channel to remain out of its banks for several months, halted all work on the shoulder last year.

Simpson said, "We had planned to resume work on the shoulder this spring, but the weather was too wet and the Diversion Channel came up several times and got into our borrow pit next to the Diversion Channel and east of the new highway.

"About the time the borrow pit would dry out enough to get our heavy equipment in there to start hauling dirt, the Mississippi River would come back up and cause the Diversion Channel to overflow into the borrow pit. Even now the pit looks dry on the surface, but about a foot under the hard crust the ground is still too wet to use."

Realizing the growing frustration of motorists who were asked to slow down on the new section of highway, and wanting to close the books on the project, Simpson contacted the department headquarters in Jefferson City earlier this year and received authorization to purchase dirt fill from another source.

Working with the contractor on the highway construction project, Robertson Construction Inc. of Poplar Bluff, Simpson was able to obtain dirt from a commercial borrow pit opened recently on Highway 74 about five miles east of the worksite.

Simpson said work on the shoulder resumed June 9. "We've just about completed the shoulder along the new section of highway south of the bridge," he said. "The contractor is going to bring in large rock for the side base of the shoulder late this week or early next week.

"After the shoulder is completed we'll cover it with asphalt and install guard rails. As soon as that's done, probably sometime in mid-July, we'll raise the speed limit back to 55 mph. We'll come back in later in the summer and seed the shoulder.

"I can assure you, we certainly were not happy about the long delay in completing the project, but Mother Nature kept throwing curves at us. And until the shoulder is completed we had to keep the speed limit at 30-mph for the safety of motorists."

Meanwhile, Bob Wilson, Missouri Highway and Transportation Department resident engineer at Jackson, said Wednesday one-way traffic over the Hubble Creek bridge on North Hope Street (Highway 61) will not be needed after all. The Hubble Creek bridge is one of several bridges in the area getting deck repairs and a new asphalt surface.

Wilson said: "When we installed the temporary stop lights at the bridge we thought we were going to have to do a lot of work on the bridge deck, which meant we would have to maintain one-way traffic over the bridge 24-hours-day. But after we took the old asphalt surface off we found the concrete deck was in better shape than we thought. All we have to do now is put down the new surface.

"That will be done as soon as the contractor has completed repairs on the Castor River bridge on Highway 72, and is ready to put down the new surface. That should be sometime in mid-July. Until then the stoplights will be turned off and two-way traffic over the Hubble Creek bridge can continue."