Cole County Public Works officials announced that construction work to improve Business 50 West in the Apache Flats area will begin Monday, weather permitting.
Don Schnieders Excavating Company Inc. was awarded the $3.5 million project by the County Commission in January.
The first phase of work will be starting near the intersection of Country Club Drive and will focus primarily on the north side of the road. That will be followed by work on the south side of the road and in the center lane. Traffic will be shifted to two lanes without a center turn lane during this phase. There will be periodic disruptions during the installation of pipe crossings, which will require only one lane of traffic and detours will be set up directing traffic around the area.
The project will be split into three phases and some of the work will run concurrently to keep the project on schedule.
Phase 1 will run to approximately Enterprise Drive. Phase 2 will go from Enterprise Drive to Pioneer Trail Drive, and phase 3 will go from Pioneer Trail Drive to Babe Ruth Drive.
The project is scheduled to last the entire year with a completion date of Dec. 15.
Public works officials said there will be inconveniences during work on this project, but they believe innovative contracting allowed the contractor to design a way to keep the inconveniences to a minimum.