Those who regularly drive around the Imperial area near the Mastodon State Historic Site are advised to find an alternate route for the next year or so while improvements are being made to Seckman Road.
Jefferson County Public Works Director Jason Jonas said work should begin Sept. 25 on the heavily traveled 1-mile stretch of Seckman Road between the West Outer Road and the western entrance to the historic site, which he called the “Boy Scout entrance.”
Jonas said soon after work starts, one lane of the two-lane Seckman Road will be closed, and a temporary traffic signal will be placed to allow traffic to pass through the construction zone in one direction, then the other.
“This stretch has about 11,000 cars on it a day, so I’d say if you can find another way in and out, it would be a good idea to use it,” he said. “There are only so many cars that will be allowed through at any one time, so during peak times in the morning and evening rush hours, you might have to sit through a backup. So anything that people can do to avoid the area will help congestion.”
Jonas said he doesn’t believe the area will be completely closed during construction, which is expected to last through late summer or early fall of 2024, but the one-way alternating signals will likely be in place for most of the work.
“This will take a little time to complete,” he said. “We’re asking everybody to be patient.”
Even with expected backups, Jonas said he doesn’t anticipate too many complaints.
“I think the public is ready to see this road improved. When it’s done, it will be a lot safer,” he said. “And this is truly a safety-type project.”
During the five years (2011-2015) that were included in the application for federal safety money for the project, there were 38 traffic crashes along that one-mile stretch, 15 of which resulted in injuries, 12 with serious injuries, Jonas said.
“The rest had property damage,” he said. “That’s a lot of crashes in a small area. There are several reasons for that. While there are no other entrances and exits onto Seckman Road in that stretch other than the park, there are a lot of people pulling in and out of that park in an area where sight distances are poor.”
To address that, Jonas said a hill that crests in front of the main entrance will be leveled off and the entrance to the site will be realigned to make it perpendicular to Seckman Road.
“That will really straighten out the line of sight,” he said.
In addition, a left-turn lane will be added for westbound traffic to enter the site.
Another problem along that stretch of road, Jonas said, is the lack of shoulders.
“We’ll be putting in 8-foot shoulders on the south side and 2- or 3-foot wide shoulders on the north side, with curbs and gutters to prevent stormwater from washing over the road.
“Right now, there are no shoulders, and on the north side you’ve got tall bluffs and on the south a dropoff. If you’re going through there with any amount of excess speed and miscalculate, there’s not a lot of forgiveness. We can’t put wider shoulders on the north side because we’re against the bluff, but even 1 or 2 feet gives some kind of help.”
In addition, he said, that portion of Seckman Road will be raised out of the 100-year flood plain.
“Seckman does get covered when Rock Creek flash floods, and that happens every two or three years. Generally, it’s closed for 24 hours or so, but I can remember once it was closed for a couple of days,” Jonas said. “Raising it out of the floodplain will allow better access for emergency responders. It will be one more mile of a county road that won’t be flooded.”
PCX Construction in Arnold was the lower of two bidders for the job at $4,207,375, with federal funding paying for 70 percent of the work and 30 percent coming from the county’s share of revenue from a countywide 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge improvements.
Jonas noted that the work was estimated at $2,550,978.
“As we’ve all seen over the last 24 months, inflation has taken its toll, on food and fuel and other goods,” he said. “The cost of construction materials is 20 to 25 percent higher than it was even 18 months ago.”
Jonas said engineers typically base their estimates on historical data, and when the design work was done on the Seckman Road project, there weren’t many current comparable projects.
“The good news is the last couple of bids we’ve opened (for other projects) have been pretty much right-on with the estimates,” he said.
Other Imperial road projects
Jonas said all work on the first two phases of the Old Lemay Ferry Road improvement project wrapped up in May.
“That project began late last June, so it’s good to put that part behind us,” he said. “I know a lot of people were anxious to get that finished.”
Jonas said hopefully the county will turn its attention back to Old Lemay Ferry Road about the time the Seckman Road project is finished.
“We didn’t want to gum up all of Imperial at the same time,” he said.
The third phase of the Old Lemay Ferry Road project will involve making safety improvements from Kneff Road to north of Frisco Hill Road, including wider shoulders, rumble strips, better warning signs and guardrails and widening the road around curves.
The final phase will follow the third and entails reconstructing the portion of Old Lemay Ferry between Vogel Road and Spring Forest Road in addition to installing shoulders, making stormwater improvements and adding curbs and gutters.
Those projects are not expected to need full closures of Old Lemay Ferry.
“We will have a presence in that area of Imperial for a while,” Jonas said.