THIRD PHASE OF ROUTE 3 PROJECT UNDER WAY

THEBES, Ill. -- While high water on the Mississippi River continues to delay completion of 2.7 miles of relocated Highway 3 between Gale and Thebes, site work has started for the final 4.3 miles of relocated highway between Thebes and Twente Crossing Road, north of Olive Branch.

Bob Zieba, district engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation at Carbondale, said construction of the 2.7 miles of new highway between Thebes and Gale, and a new bridge over Sexton Creek were completed last fall, except for a small section of road that will connect the new route with the existing highway north of Gale.

Zieba said work on the tie-in cannot start until the Corps of Engineers gives the state permission to cut the agricultural levee along Sexton Creek. He said permission will not be given until the Corps is reasonably sure the threat of serious flooding on the nearby Mississippi River has ended.

Heavy rains in Minnesota, Wisconsin and northern Illinois the past three months have sent the river at Cape Girardeau to less than five feet below its 32-foot flood stage.

Zieba estimated it will be at least mid-July before any work on the tie-in with the new highway at the levee can begins.

Meanwhile, site work on the final 4.3 miles of relocated highway from Thebes to Twente Crossing Road began in March, according to Jim Borgsmiller with the Illinois Transportation Department at Carbondale. But wet weather this spring caused several delays.

With the arrival of summer and hopefully drier weather, Borgsmiller said, the pace of the work should pick up.

"Two months from now, you're going to see a remarkable difference along the new right of way because the site clearing will be completed and the contractor will be hauling in large amounts of rock and dirt fill," said Borgsmiller.

"During the coming month, there will be a lot more activity along that stretch of the highway. We urge motorists to be on the lookout for heavy equipment and people operating near or crossing the existing highway," he said.

Borgsmiller said the largest of the nine box culverts that will be built along the 4.3 miles of new highway was completed in May. The triple-box culvert is at the bottom of a steep hill about three-fourths of a mile south of the Thebes junction.

Borgsmiller said the relocated highway will cross the existing Highway 3 at two different places between Thebes and Twente Crossing Road.

He said the steep gullies and ravines along the new route will be filled, making the grade of the new highway well above that of the existing highway.

"The new route will have a much more flatter grade than the existing route which has a lot of steep hills and sharp, narrow curves," Borgsmiller explained. "When this entire project is completed in late 1993, you're going to have a very safe, and scenic route."

He said the existing sections of Route 3 will remain open for residents who live along the highway.

Borgsmiller estimated the cost of the third phase of the project at $4.6 million.

On a related matter, Borgsmiller said timber clearing last fall and winter along the new highway right of way from Thebes to Twente Crossing Road was apparently done privately, without the knowledge of the transportation department.

"We were not aware the site had been timbered until the project was ready for bidding earlier this year," Borgsmiller said. "They went in and took the good trees out and left behind the stumps, tops, and underbrush. It's going to be harder pulling those tree stumps out instead of just pushing them over."

But Borgsmiller said the contractor does not anticipate any delays to the project because of the removal of the timber.

When the entire 7.5 miles of relocated highway is completed in 1993, it will replace a road that department officials said has been functionally obsolete for 20 years.

Most of the highway between Thebes and Olive Branch was built between 1932 and 1935.

The narrow, curved and hilly route between Gale and Twente Crossing Road has been the scene of numerous motor vehicle accidents resulting in fatalities and serious injuries. During a 10-year period from 1978 to 1988, there were 150 motor vehicle accidents along that stretch, which resulted in six deaths, state highway statistics show. All were blamed in part on the obsolete highway, officials said.

Despite its age and condition, Route 3 is used by motorists and truckers traveling too and from Interstate 55 at Cape Girardeau and Interstate 24 at Paducah, Ky. The highway also carries a large amount of daily commuter and shopping traffic from Southern Illinois to Cape Girardeau.