STATE AWARDS CONTRACTS FOR RESURFACING WORK

A Cape Girardeau contractor has been awarded contracts for state highway resurfacing work in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties.

Girardeau Contractors Inc. will resurface 11.8 miles of Highway 61, from the Perry County line south to Highway 177 at Fruitland at a cost of $1.69 million.

The company also was awarded a $616,047 contract for resurfacing 5.6 miles of Route M, between Scott City and Chaffee in Scott County.

Both projects involve asphalt resurfacing work and shoulder improvements.

On another state project, Route 114 in Morehouse has been closed from just west of Route E to Route 60.

The $187,919 project involves replacement of the bridge over the Little River with a double box culvert, state highway officials said. Construction will continue through October. The contractor on the project is Penzel Construction Co. of Jackson.

Construction on the two resurfacing projects could begin this fall, but as a practical matter little road work will probably be done until next spring, said Jerry Masterson, design engineer for the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department in Sikeston.

"Normally we cut off asphalt work around the first of October," he said.

Freeman McCullah, the department's district engineer at Sikeston, said asphalt plants shut down for the winter because asphalt paving work can't be done in cold weather.

McCullah said the Highway 61 project actually involves two segments. The first includes shoulder work, widening and resurfacing with asphalt pavement of 4.7 miles of Highway 61 from the Perry County line to Route CC east of Shawneetown.

The second segment runs from Route CC to the Highway 177 intersection at Fruitland.

McCullah said that in addition to resurfacing, the project involves some minor bridge work as well as construction of a right turn on Highway 177 at its intersection with Highway 61.

He said this should alleviate the traffic backup that currently occurs at the intersection. Motorists wanting to turn north onto Highway 61 are delayed by motorists who are seeking to turn south onto the highway, he said.

McCullah said the resurfacing work will also involve painting of white lines on the edges of the roadway. The lines, he said, will help motorists distinguish the pavement from the shoulder of the road at night.

"There has been a desire for that up there for a number of years," he said.

The two resurfacing projects should be completed by June or July, he said.