LAKE OF THE OZARKS - Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) Engineer Bob Lynch said he still doesn't have a start date for a shoulder work project that is expected to cause delays for drivers using Missouri Highway 5 on the west side of the lake.
"The contractor still hasn't given us a specific start date for the project," Lynch said. "Just that the work will start sometime after July 4."
Lynch was referring to a MoDOT project that will add 4-foot wide shoulders and rumble strips to both sides of Missouri Highway 5 from Versailles to the Niangua Bridge north of Camdenton.
At a cost of $6,425,514.61, the project will begin sometime this summer and is scheduled for completion by the end of the year. The project includes resurfacing the existing roadway as well as the installation of 4-foot wide shoulders on both sides of the highway from the Niangua Bridge to Gravois Mills and 3-foot wide shoulders on both sides of the highway from Gravois Mills to Versailles.
Rumble strips will also be added to both the shoulders and the center line of the entire stretch of highway.
In addition to the Highway 5 work, the contract also calls for resurfacing of nearly three miles of U.S. Highway 54 from the courthouse square in Camdenton to the Niangua Bridge west of town.
In the meantime, Mike Kenagy, executive director of the Lake West Chamber of Commerce, said the business community on the lake's west side is patiently awaiting word on when actual work on the project will begin.
"The business community on this side would have liked to see the work begin in the spring so it would be nearly done by now," Kenagy said. "But since we all realize adding shoulders to one of the narrowest major highways in the state is something that has been a long time coming, nobody's really complaining about the delay. They all just want to see it finally get done."
Although some roadside work is currently underway on a portion of Highway 5 that runs through Versailles, Lynch said that work is not part of the shoulder project, "they are just doing some grading and drainage maintenance that needed to be done."
Meanwhile, a project that has tied-up traffic on the other side of the lake for much of this spring and several months last fall is finally nearing completion.
A project to add shoulders to state Route W in Miller and Morgan counties and to add shoulders and rumble strips to Highway 42 in Miller County is almost done.
Lynch said that project is scheduled for completion in the "middle of June." Earlier this spring, workers with APAC of Columbia began widening a 15-mile stretch of Highway 42 from Osage Beach to just past the town of Brumley in Miller County. Lynch said those crews are now concentrating on completing the final five miles of the project.
"Right now they're doing the five-mile stretch from Osage Beach to near the entrance to Lake of the Ozarks State Park," he said. "When that stretch is complete, the entire job will be completed."
When finished, workers will have added four-foot wide shoulders to both sides of Highway 42 and rumble strips along both shoulders and the center line. Work on Route W was completed last fall. In that portion of the project, 2-foot wide shoulders and rumble strips were added to either side of Route W from Lake Ozark in Miller County to Rocky Mount near the Miller-Morgan county line. Rumble strips were not added to the center line on Route W.
Earlier this spring, crews completed work on the two westbound lanes of the Highway 54 Expressway Osage River below Bagnell Dam. There, the road surface was stripped down to its base and a new surface laid. Some maintenance work was also done to the bridge's underside, railings and drainage system.
"That job was completed before the Memorial Day Weekend as promised," Lynch said.
And finally, work on the construction of a new span to replace the 80-plus-year-old Hurricane Deck Bridge near Sunrise Beach is moving along at a steady pace.
"They're a little ahead of schedule over there," Lynch said. "And if the weather holds out, the new bridge will open to traffic by Jan. 1 as promised."