Improvements to Highway 6 in Grundy County are coming and should begin as soon as the spring of 2006.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Improvements to Highway 6 in Grundy County are coming and should begin as soon as the spring of 2006.
Area Engineer Jeff Madsen said bids for the work are expected to be let in the fall of 2005, with work to start once those bids are accepted. The project would entail road and bridge improvements on Highway 6, beginning at the Grundy-Daviess County line and continuing east through Trenton and to the Highway 65 intersection.
“It’s something that is definitely in the works,” Madsen said during a visit in Trenton this morning. “We’ve been trying to get the funding for this project for some time and now it’s available and we’re ready to move forward.”
Madsen said because of the extensive work involved, the project is one that will take several months to complete.
“The project is in the design phase right now and one of the things were are looking at is what needs to be done with the Thompson River Bridge,” he said, adding that redecking the bridge is one possibility. “We’re also talking about extensive repair and asphalting, stabilization of shoulders and replacement of guardrails.”
With the work including repairs and asphalting of roads within the city of Trenton, Madsen estimates work could continue until late fall of 2006.
“It is hoped to have the project done in the fall,” he said.
Madsen and Scott Peck, a public information officer with the Missouri Department of Transportation, also discussed other MoDOT plans now that Amendment 3 has been approved by Missouri voters. Amendment 3 calls for road and bridge tax monies to go for those purposes rather than to be diverted into other areas of the state budget. As a result, MoDOT is estimating that approximately $400 million in additional revenue will be received each year and allow the state to continue with and add projects to improve Missouri’s roads.
“With Amendment 3, we’ve (MoDOT) developed a three-phase program called the Smooth Roads Initiative that is designed to target monies to improve the state’s most-heavily traveled roads,” Peck said. “This plan would allow us to focus this additional money onto roads that are located within 10 miles of where 86 percent of the population lives.”
The idea is to focus on highways that will benefit the most people, Peck said, adding that in this area the concentration would be business routes on Highways 63 and 36, including the communities of Chillicothe, Kirksville, Macon and Moberly.
“Those are things that would be done in the first phase,” Peck said. “The second and third phase would allow us to look at programs that are in each district’s five-year plan and see if we can’t accelerate them and maybe even add some new projects.”
The money would come from bonds the state would issue and would be backed by the $400 million in additional revenue anticipated from the amendment.
Madsen said one of the projects he would like to see done, if money can be found, is road work on Highway 65 near Spickard.
“That’s something we know needs to be done and something we want to do if the money is available,” Madsen said.