CONSTRUCTION WORK STARTS ON ROAD DAMAGED BY FLOOD

MILLER CITY, Ill, -- Groundwork, which includes filling two large scour holes left from the Flood of 1993, is under way on a the 12.2-mile section of the Miller City Road.

"We'll be concentrating our efforts on bringing the roadbed to a flood elevation that won't be a threat to people living in that area," said Terry Mandrell, general manager of the Southern Illinois Asphalt Co. Inc. of Mount Vernon, Ill. "It will probably be next year before we lay asphalt."

The Miller City Road project is one of 215 projects recently approved by the Illinois Department of Transportation. The value of the projects was more than $178.3 million.

The contract bid for an aggregate base and drainage structures on the Miller City Road (Route 946), from Olive Branch to Miller City and from Miller City to Route 3 near Cache was for $1,600,903.

Portions of the road, especially from Miller City to the Cache area, have been closed periodically since the flood left a giant scour hole in the road near the Cache area in September of 1993. The road is open now.

"That hole has been partially filled by the Alexander County Highway Department," said Mandrell.

The big scour hole now, which was left by flooding waters in early 1994, is just east of Miller City,

"We have a lot of fill work there," said Mandrell.

The plans also call for a curve in the road just east of Miller City.

"We're glad to see the work funded," said Joe Plemmons of the Alexander County Transportation Department at Olive Branch. "We had hoped that we could start early enough this year to have it completed by the end of the year, but we're just glad it started."

"The present road has a T-intersection," said Plemons. "The new road will eliminate the T.

The project is being funded by the Federal Highway Administration Emergency Repair Program and the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs , said Plemons. DCCA funds are provided to local communities with populations of 50,000 or less.

Three other projects have been approved for Southern Illinois.

Sewer and street reconstruction is scheduled at 14th Street and Washington Avenue and at 26th and Commercial streets in Cairo, at a cost of $105,027. Simonds Construction of Carbondale is the contractor.

Five miles of Route 37 pavement patching is scheduled in Pulaski County, from the county line south through New Grand Chain, a distance of 5 miles. Southern Illinois Asphalt will patch a total of 11.5 miles at five sites at a cost of $753,707.

A seismic retrofit is scheduled for the two bridges carrying Interstate 57 traffic over the Illinois Central Railroad southeast of Mounds in Pulaski County. The work, by St. Louis Bridge Construction Co. of Arnold, was bid at $358,112.