Commission approves speed study in western Cole County

Traffic passes Tuesday, March 9, 2021, through an intersection at Henwick Lane and Sharon Drive in Cole County.
Traffic passes Tuesday, March 9, 2021, through an intersection at Henwick Lane and Sharon Drive in Cole County.

The Cole County Commission on Tuesday signed an agreement for a speed study to be done on some roads on the county's west side.

Cole County Public Works Director Eric Landwehr said the contract with Bartlett & West will have the company review speed and safety issues on Henwick Lane, Rainbow Drive and Highland Waye.

"We have had recent concerns from residents on these roads in particular about excessive speed and general safety concerns," Landwehr said. "Bartlett & West will analyze traffic speed, accident history, geometric issues and present some options for us to consider. This item was recently discussed with the Traffic and Safety Advisory Board, and they recommended to move forward with a study."

Landwehr said they want the study completed this summer, and they anticipate any changes the company implements will be done by the department's in-house staff.

"We get a lot of requests from people asking for more speed limit signs, and those really don't do a whole lot," Landwehr said. "We need a professional to look over these issues."

The cost for the study is $19,612. The money will come from funding set aside for safety improvements in the county's capital improvement half-cent sales tax.

"If this process to identify solutions to speed and safety issues goes well, we will look at other roads in the future," Landwehr said. "We'd look primarily at roads coming into Jefferson City such as Bald Hill, Tanner Bridge and Scott Station."

Also Tuesday, commissioners approved an agreement for additional engineering services for the Old Forge Road Bridge replacement project.

"We added some out-of-scope work for MECO Engineering to do," Landwehr said. "When we set up the original agreement with MECO in 2019, we had planned to do that work in house; but due to our staffing workload at the time we opted to have MECO do this work. The cost is $3,727.31."

The agreement with MECO in 2019 was for $100,000.

The Old Forge Road Bridge is off Old Bass Road, south of Brazito. Old Forge is a one-lane bridge over Clark Fork that was built in 1930 and has a posted 18-ton load limit.

The bridge, which is on the Missouri Department of Transportation's deficient bridge list, will be replaced using federal funds from the Off System Bridge Program for county bridges administered by MoDOT.

The construction work is out to bid right now, and work should be completed by this summer, Landwehr said.