Residents near South Country Club Drive say the truck traffic on the road is causing structural concerns for their homes and are looking for Jefferson City officials to help find a solution.
About 12 residents attended the Public Works and Planning meeting Thursday to discuss the issue and request that South Country Club Drive be entirely rebuilt to address the structural concerns. Residents said the road is rough and have requested it be smoothed.
Public Works Director Matt Morasch said staff from the streets division performed some maintenance of the pavement joints last month to try to address some of the residents' concerns, though residents said the effort, while appreciated, was unsuccessful.
Operations Division Director Britt Smith said the road is structurally sound, but it was built rough. Without completely rebuilding the road, he said he's unsure if the city could ever make it smooth.
"At this point, we don't have a good solution," Smith said. "We're going to continue to monitor it."
Joyce Lewis said constant truck traffic on South Country Club Drive is causing additional stress to the road and damage to homes nearby.
"It's getting worse so quickly and so bad," Lewis said. "Something is going to have to be done or our houses are going to fall down around us."
Don Zehnder said the heavy truck traffic rattles the windows and dishes, and is fairly constant throughout the day and night. He also noted the problems only began within the last six to eight months.
"We can't go on having all this damage, and it's obviously the trucks," Lewis said.
After discussing the issue, committee members directed City Administrator Steve Crowell to meet with the police department about increasing enforcement of the speed limit on South Country Club Drive, as well as arranging meetings with nearby plant managers to discuss the issue with local truck drivers. Morasch was directed to meet with residents and try to find additional solutions, as well as the cost for any additional work on the road. The committee also discussed looking into a lower speed limit on the road specifically for trucks.
"We've got to identify the problem," said 3rd Ward Councilman Bob Scrivner. "We will start moving forward on this."