A major intersection near Northwest High School in Cedar Hill will be closed through the spring as it gets a safety makeover.
Preliminary work began March 1, and the intersection of Cedar Hill Road and Local Hillsboro Road just south of the school campus was scheduled to close March 10, after the Leader deadline, when workers from Jokerst Paving and Contracting Inc. in Festus were set to begin regrading the approaches to the intersection and realigning it.
Jokerst was the lowest of five bidders for the $514,361 project.
Jefferson County Public Works Director Jason Jonas said the intersection has long been a safety concern.
“There have been a number of accidents there,” he said. “It’s a Y-intersection, and there are no shoulders and poor sight distances.”
Once the work is complete, the intersection will be remade into a standard T-style intersection, with both roads meeting at right angles.
A left turn lane will allow traffic to turn from Local Hillsboro Road onto Cedar Hill Road, which has access along the west side of the school campus to Hwy. 30.
Grading will solve some of the sight issues, and 4-foot shoulders will be added.
Jonas said it’s unfortunate the closure will be a full one, with motorists having to find other routes.
“Because of the grading work that needs to be done, there’s no way we can keep it open to one-way traffic,” he said. “This will have some impact on the school, unfortunately, but we’ll be done by (the time school reopens in the fall). There’s no way this project could have been done over the summer.”
An estimated 3,090 cars go through the intersection each day.
Federal funding will pay for 25 percent of the project, with the rest coming from the county’s share of a 1/2-cent countywide sales tax for road and bridge improvements.