The Festus City Council recently awarded a $1,233,710 contract to Kimes Contracting in Hillsboro for street, sidewalk and lighting upgrades and water main replacement along a section of West Main Street from Park Avenue to North Mill Street.
Construction is expected to begin in December and take about five months to complete, City Administrator Greg Camp said.
“(The project) is supposed to take up to 150 days, according to the contract,” he said. “That’s without weather or other unexpected delays.”
The city has received a federal Surface Transportation Program grant that will cover 80 percent of the cost for the street, sidewalk and lighting upgrades, which will cost an estimated $1,083,710 Camp said.
That means the grant will cover $866,968, and the city will pay the remaining $216,742 for those upgrades, he said.
The grant won’t cover the water main replacement, which will cost about $150,000 more, so the city will cover the entire cost for that project, Camp said.
However, Kime Construction will oversee the street, sidewalk and lighting improvements, as well as the water main replacement, which will begin first, Camp said.
“In December, Kimes is to start (overseeing water main replacement),” Camp said.
He said the street, sidewalk and lighting upgrades are considered Phase 1 of a West Main Street improvement project.
Phase 2 would improve West Main Street from Park Avenue to the bridge over I-55, he said.
Expect traffic rerouting during the work, Camp said.
“There will definitely be interruptions in traffic,” he said. “It will sometimes be a disruption of one lane, sometimes completely shut down.”
He said the traffic delay headaches will be worth it once the project is completed.
“When it’s finished, it will be a big improvement,” he said.