I-55 project on schedule, project manager says

Contractors working on the East Main Street/LaSalle Avenue interchange project are on or ahead of schedule, according to a Missouri Department of Transportation project manager.

Project manager Andrew Meyer said the June 18 date for starting to divert traffic that MoDOT has been publicizing was not actually a deadline for diverting traffic, but the earliest anticipated date the diversion would begin. At a public meeting held Thursday at the Conservation Campus Nature Center, MoDOT personnel told the public traffic diversion would actually begin June 27.

"By no means are they behind," Meyer said of contractors Dumey Contracting Inc. "They've been very aggressive in their schedule."

On June 27, northbound and southbound traffic on Interstate 55 near mile marker 102 will be diverted head-to-head to newly constructed on- and off-ramps to the east of the road. The ramps will later service the northbound portion of I-55, but during the project they'll be divided into two 12-feet-wide lanes for two-way traffic. The ramps will be wide enough to later mark them with two left turn lanes.

Some delays were experienced at the beginning of the project last fall, when the presence of endangered Indiana bats prevented the clearing of trees around the project site. Meyer said contractors have since caught up to expected progress before the presence of the bats was even known.

Meyer said right now is "the critical point" in the construction, since traffic has to be diverted onto the ramps before the bridges needed for the interchange can be built. Once traffic is directed to the ramps, excavation can begin to build the bridges and create the East Main Street/LaSalle Avenue road bed that will run underneath the new bridges.

MoDOT hopes the first bridge -- on southbound I-55 -- will be ready for use by Thanksgiving.

Overall work on the project is expected to wrap up by summer 2008. Meyer said that will be well ahead of the allotted work days for the project, which extend into late 2008.

Today both northbound and southbound lanes will be reduced to one lane in the area as the contractors work to finish the median crossover that will divert traffic onto the ramps. On Monday and Tuesday, only northbound I-55 will be reduced to one lane.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182