A portion of Old Lemay Ferry Road south of Arnold, from Vogel Road to Spring Forest Drive, closed to northbound traffic on June 1 to allow construction crews to work on the road.
Work on the road is expected to be completed by Aug. 24.
The road will remain open to one-way, southbound traffic, according to a written release from the Jefferson County Public Works Department.
Northbound motorists are encouraged to use a detour route around the construction zone, taking Seckman Road to West Outer Road to Vogel Road.
Normal two-way traffic will resume Aug. 24, the day before the school year begins for the Fox C-6 School District.
For the project, a 2,850-foot stretch of Old Lemay Ferry Road will be widened from two 11.5-foot travel lanes to 12-foot lanes, and 5-foot shoulders will be added. A left-turn lane will be added to Adobe Drive, into the Buena Vista subdivision. Public Works Director Jason Jonas said previously that these improvements should help mitigate run-off-the-road crashes and rear-end collisions at the subdivision entrance.
Public Works stated the partial road closure will ensure safety for motorists and construction workers. Construction began Jan. 22 on the heavily traveled half-mile stretch of Old Lemay Ferry and temporary traffic signals are in place to allow traffic to pass through the construction zone in one direction at a time.
This portion of Old Lemay Ferry has about 11,468 average daily travelers, Public Works reports.
“Many motorists are running the red stop lights and meeting oncoming traffic in the one-lane construction work zone,” the Public Works statement said. “Construction improvements, including new storm sewers, new shoulders and pavement widening, are to be placed close to the Old Lemay Ferry/Vogel intersection. These improvements are demonstrating to be difficult and time-consuming to construct near the intersection under the current one-way traffic signal conditions. The one-way closure will provide a safe working condition for the contractor to construct, with only dealing with one lane of traffic.”
Closing the road to northbound traffic will also ensure the project is completed within the 145-working-day window with contractor Jokerst Contracting of Festus, according to the statement. As of May 15, Jokerst has used 37 of the 145 working days.
Jokerst Contracting was the lowest of three bidders for the job, at $1,991,239.32. Federal grants will pay for 60 percent, or $1,194,743.59, of the work, and the county’s share of revenue from a countywide 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge improvements will be used to pay the remaining 40 percent, or $796,495.73.
“With having one lane of traffic closed, this will allow the contractor to have an accelerated schedule through the construction jobsite, with fuller access to the jobsite (versus smaller work zones with the temporary signals) and allow additional crews to continue working on multiple areas at once,” the statement said.
Richardson-Old Lemay Ferry intersection improvement begins
By Tony Krausz
A portion of Richardson Road will be closed for most of the summer, and Arnold will pay $34,101.14 more for two completed projects.
The city was scheduled to close part of Richardson Road just past Ems Glen Lane on Tuesday as work begins for an improvement project at the intersection of Richardson and Old Lemay Ferry roads. Interim Public Works Director James Pogorzelski said the road is expected to reopen by Aug. 15.
Arnold also will pay $15,501.14 more for its asphalt and overlay road projects, which were recently completed, because additional work was needed, and it will pay $18,600 more after replacing a collapsed pipe and filling in a hole behind a Woodridge Estate subdivision fourplex.
City Council members voted 6-0 on May 21 to pay the additional costs for the road and Woodridge Estates projects. Councilmen EJ Fleischmann and Michael Rethmeyer were not at the meeting.
Intersection
Approximately 200 feet of Richardson Road will be closed during the project, but Old Lemay Ferry Road will remain open.
The city waited until the Fox C-6 School District’s school year ended to start the project, and the work is expected to be done before the 2026-2027 school year begins. The Fox C-6 2025-2026 school year ended on May 22, and the next school year is scheduled to start on Aug. 25.
“They will be pushing to get it done, and the reason we did is to not affect the school bus schedule for next (school) year,” Pogorzelski said.
In December, the city hired Jokerst Inc. of Ste. Genevieve to do the federally-funded $499,513.09 project at the intersection of Richardson and Old Lemay Ferry roads.
Arnold received a grant from the East-West Gateway Council of Governments that will pay for $399,610.45, or about 80 percent, of the project, and the city will pay $99,902.65, or about 20 percent.
The intersection will be realigned about 200 feet south of where Richardson and Old Lemay Ferry currently connect, creating a 90-degree turn instead of the current Y-turn configuration.
Dedicated left- and right-turn lanes will be added to Richardson Road, which should make it easier for drivers to turn north or south onto Old Lemay Ferry Road.
A stormwater pipe that runs under Richardson Road will be replaced during the project.
The intersection improvement has been in the works for a while.
In November 2022, Arnold entered a Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, MoDOT’s governing body, to secure the grant from the East-West Gateway Council of Governments.
“I will be really happy to have it done,” Pogorzelski said. “We are putting in a larger box channel because that area is prone to flash flooding. By putting that in there, it is going to take a lot more volume for that to flood. The roadway also is designed that if the channel would get blocked, the water would go over the top of the road and not flood a nearby house.”
Asphalt project
Arnold will now pay Spencer Contracting of Arnold a total of $730,232.03 for asphalt overlay and repair projects on 22 streets.
The city hired the company in March to handle this year’s street projects, and it was originally paying $714,730.89 for asphalt overlay and repair projects.
The streets that were worked on were: Grant, Fawn, Deer Run Court, Maxville Lane, Terrace, David Drive, Don Ron Drive, Harlene Drive, Trails End Drive, Tommy Drive, Timothy Drive, Tony Drive, Wayne Drive, Sherry Drive, Betty Drive, Clara Drive, Laverne Drive and Mary Drive. The asphalt overlay on Timothy Drive was only done between Wayne and Tommy drives.
Pogorzelski said the cost rose because additional repairs were needed after roads were milled. He said most of the additional repair work was done on Mary Drive.
“It had a lot of base repairs that were needed,” he said of Mary Drive. “It is a really narrow street, and a lot of the edge of the road were smashed down from traffic. They had to dig it out and do additional base repair so they could overlay it.”
Woodridge Estates
Girdner Contracting LLC of Sunset Hills started work in February to replace a collapsed pipe and fill in a giant hole behind a Woodridge Estate subdivision fourplex that formed at the 800 block of Woodridge Drive off Tenbrook Road following torrential rain on July 16, 2024. A corrugated metal stormwater pipe rusted, causing the back yards of four property owners to collapse.
The city of Arnold is paying the initial cost of the project, but subdivision residents will be required to repay the city. The final cost will be divided among the 119 homes in the subdivision.
The total cost for the project may be as high as $502,594 after factoring in the additional cost.
Pogorzelski said Girdner needed to add grout filling to what remained of the rusted-out pipe because it was threatening the structural integrity of one of the nearby homes.
“The existing pipe was really close to the patio and deck,” he said. “With it being so deep, it was going to risk the structural integrity of the home by removing it. The engineer said the best option was to fill it with grout and install the new pipe next to (the old pipe). The new pipe did go in at its originally planned location. They just didn’t remove the old one.”
City Council members in December voted to pay $234,413 to Girdner Contracting to remove approximately 200 feet of rusted stormwater pipe and replace it with a concrete pipe that is 60 inches in diameter. Girdner also will fill in the hole and place rocks in a creek that runs behind the subdivision.
Arnold council members also approved paying Civil Design Inc. of St. Louis $51,482 for civil engineering services and design work, and paying Missouri American Water $146,841 to replace 55 feet of sewer pipe that runs under the stormwater pipe.
Pogorzelski said some of the remediation work following the sewer and stormwater pipes’ repair will overlap, so the payment to Missouri American Water will be reduced. He said Missouri American Water completed its work in January.
Arnold City Administrator Anthony Traxler previously said residents will have the option to pay their share of the project’s cost at once or by having a traditional lien placed on their home.