Jefferson County Public Works Director Jason Jonas said the work on Seckman Road will be completed and the road will be reopened to traffic, as promised, by Aug. 19.
A 1,000-foot-long portion of the road, from the West Outer Road to the western entrance of Mastodon State Park in Imperial, has been closed to vehicle traffic since earlier this summer to speed along the project, which is raising the road above flood levels and stabilizing the bluffs along the road.
Jonas said on Monday that construction crews had finished all the raising and grading, which has taken the road out of the 100-year flood plain. The crews also finished all of the paving on the road.
“We’re close,” he said. “We’ll be opening on time and on schedule.”
PCX Construction in Arnold began working last September to improve a 1-mile stretch of Seckman Road and part of that section has been closed since May 28 for construction.
The construction company was the lower of two bidders for the job at $4,207,375, with federal funding to cover 70 percent, or $2,945,162.50, and the county to cover the remaining 30 percent, or $1,262,212.50, with its share of a countywide 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge improvements.
Jonas said the decision to close part of Seckman Road in May was made because of traffic safety and flooding concerns.
Before that closure, one lane of the two-lane road was closed to traffic while construction crews worked there, and a temporary traffic signal allowed traffic to pass through the construction zone in one direction, and then the other, at timed intervals. However, Jonas said motorists frequently ran the red light, leading to safety concerns.
In addition, Public Works was forced to close the road to traffic twice in early May due to heavy rainfalls.
Jonas said there were three heavy rain events in July – on July 5, 9 and 16 – with 5 1/2 inches of rain falling in the Seckman area on July 16.
He said it was good the road was closed during those rains.
“If we had it open, it would have been a nightmare,” Jonas said. “(The heavy rainfall) didn’t hold us back at all, and we made the right call with it.”
Jonas said he expects work to be completed before Fox C-6 School District students resume classes on Aug. 20.
Jonas said that once completed, the improvements will be a benefit to the community because the road will be less prone to flood, will have wider shoulders and will include safety features like guardrails and rumble strips.
More improvements on the way
Jonas said a separate repaving project on a portion of Seckman Road will be completed in mid-August.
The section of the road from the Seckman schools campus to the part of Seckman Road where improvements are currently underway will be repaved.
NB West Contracting in Eureka will repave that road as part of a larger $1,961,507.42 project that includes 17.75 miles along four county roads. In addition to the stretch of Seckman Road, repaving will be completed along High Ridge Boulevard, West Rock Creek Road and the Lonedell Road in the unincorporated Arnold area.
Jonas said the repaving projects will be funded through the county’s 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge improvements.