Flooding delays infrastructure improvement projects in Cole County

Flooding has delayed work on some joint projects funded by Jefferson City and Cole County.

During Wednesday's Cole County Commission meeting, Jefferson City Engineer David Bange presented an update on four of the projects the city and county have partnered or plan to partner on using their combined capital improvement sales tax funds to complete.

One of those projects is a rail spur at Morris Packaging in the Algoa area. The county and city are each paying $225,000 for the work, and Morris Packaging is paying $79,800. The spur will run from Command Web across Militia Drive and continue along the south side of Morris Packaging and Alpla.

The company doing the work has been busy with other projects, which also have been delayed due to flooding, Bange said. They have found that ties under the crossing on Militia Drive are rotting, so they'll try to address that, Bange added. Work could be done by August or September.

Also affected by flooding has been the $2.6 million project to replace a bridge; add bike lanes, a sidewalk and greenway; and improve the stormwater and sanitary sewer system on Dunklin Street.

Bange said they have been able to do work in the 300 block of Dunklin Street, where they're improving curbing sidewalks and traffic signals. That work could be done in two to three weeks.

The area where flooding has affected the project is the 400 block of Dunklin Street, where stormwater work is on hold because Wears Creek needs to be dry to install the stormwater pipe.

The new single-span steel girder bridge will allow two lanes of traffic. It's the last phase of the project, but Bange said they need the water to go down to have access to the bank and creek. If the water goes down in the next few weeks, he believes they could still finish the work by the planned completion date of Nov. 27.

Bange told commissioners plans are moving forward on improvements to East High Street.

The city plans to bid out the work in October, he said. The improvements on East High Street will go between Cherry Street and Vetter Lane and include curb, gutter and sidewalk repairs; street overlay; and retaining walls and stormwater inlets improvements.

The estimated price tag is $1.7 million. Each entity would pay $850,000 for the project.

One other project Bange mentioned is a roundabout for the intersection of Clark Avenue and Dunklin Street. The Jefferson City Council approved a $152,556 engineering contract with Bartlett & West earlier this month to design the roundabout.

Construction of the roundabout is estimated to cost approximately $1.7 million and would not begin until 2022.