The Lake Today

Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) engineer Bob Lynch said despite heavy spring rains, most highway construction projects in the Lake Area are on schedule and should be completed on time.

“Even though we have had a lot of heavy rain this spring that could affect the construction schedules the workers have been able to stay on the job,” Lynch said. “In this area they usually deal with more rock than actual dirt anyway, so when the rains come they just switch to excavating and hauling rock until it dries out.”

Lynch gave updates on each of MoDOT’s Lake Area road construction projects as follows:

Hurricane Deck bridge replacement project

Although replacement of the Missouri 5 Hurricane Deck bridge over the main channel of the Lake isn’t scheduled to begin until sometime next year, Lynch said the project is moving forward at the expected rate.

“We’ve scheduled a public hearing for 4-6:30 p.m. July 28 at the Hurricane Deck Elementary School in Sunrise Beach,” Lynch said. “Once we get input from the public on how to best handle routing traffic around the construction site, we’ll move forward with scheduling the actual start of construction, putting the job out for bid and choosing a contractor.”

Lynch said one of the decisions for which MoDOT is looking for input from the public is how best to handle the rerouting of traffic on Missouri 5 while a new bridge is being built.

He said MoDOT wants the new bridge located in the “exact footprint” of the old bridge because that portion of the Lake’s shoreline is the most stable. However, he said MoDOT hasn’t yet decided whether to install a temporary bridge next to the construction to handle traffic, or move the current bridge downstream a little way and continue to use it until the project is complete.

The Hurricane Deck Bridge was built in the mid-1930s; it is a steel arch truss design — the same as the Interstate 35 bridge that collapsed near Minneapolis a few years ago, killing 13 people.

Although the bridge had not been scheduled for replacement for several years, after the collapse of the Interstate 35 Bridge, MoDOT opted to move forward with building a new bridge.

Originally a toll bridge, the Hurricane Deck Bridge was one of three steel, arch truss bridges originally built over the Lake. The other two bridges, the U.S. 54 bridge over the Niangua Arm of the Lake, west of Camdenton, and the Missouri 5 bridge, also over the Niangua Arm, north of Camdenton, were replaced several years ago.

Lynch said once MoDOT has received and reviewed the public’s comments on the Hurricane Deck Bridge project, those comments will be reviewed and MoDOT will put the project out for bid.

“It’s scheduled to go out for bid in late fall or early winter,” Lynch said. “Once a contractor is selected, the construction start date will be set and that date will be sometime before the end of 2012.”

Spencer Creek Bridge replacement project

Lynch said replacement of the Spencer Creek Bridge on state Route D near Ha Ha Tonka State Park is on schedule, and the contractor is expecting to install the girders for the new bridge this week and next. The road should reopen to traffic by the middle of the month, as projected.

“Once the girders are in place, they’ll be able to pour the bridge deck,” Lynch said. “And once the deck is poured it’s just a matter of days before the road reopens.”

U.S. 54 Expressway, southwest of Grand Glaize bridge

Lynch said construction of the second half of the U.S. 54 Expressway, from the Grand Glaize Bridge to near Mexicali Blues Restaurant in Osage Beach, is also proceeding on schedule.

“A lot of that work is done and the contractor is getting ready to start pouring the road surface at the west end of the project,” Lynch said.

He said at that end of the Expressway, the on- and off-ramps that will carry traffic from the expressway to Osage Beach Parkway will be located near what is now the entrance to Key Largo Road.

“That interchange will be located so both north- and southbound traffic has access to Lazy Days Road and the residences and businesses on either side of the old Highway 54,” he said. “When that interchange is finished it will look a lot like the new turn lanes we just finished building in Linn Creek.”

According to Lynch, work at the Grand Glaize Bridge end of that section of the expressway is also proceeding on schedule and the contractor is currently working on filling in the area that will carry the traffic on to and off the bridge.

“We actually had to fill in a portion of the Lake at that point so the ramps could be built,” Lynch said.

He said crews are also working on the interchange that will carry traffic from the expressway back onto the Osage Beach Parkway at Jeffries Road directly adjacent to the west end of the Grand Glaize Bridge.

“That on and off ramp will work just like the one does for Passover Road at the northeast end of the bridge,” Lynch said. “Traffic will exit from the bridge onto Jeffries Road then loop back around on to Osage Beach Parkway.”

According to Lynch work is also progressing on the entrance and exit ramps at what will be the Nichols Road interchange behind Lake Regional Hospital. Originally MoDOT had planned on installing a “three-legged interchange” at that point, with no eastbound on-ramp. However, Lynch said, after discussions with Osage Beach, it was decided to build a fourth on-ramp that would handle traffic heading toward Jefferson City.

Lynch said because the northbound on-ramp had to be built through so much rock at that point, and MoDOT officials were reluctant to spend state money on what “essentially was a city street; we had decided not to build an onramp.”

However, he said after city officials expressed the need for access for northbound traffic to travel from Nichols Road to the expressway, the two entities struck a compromise.

“We worked it out with the city, so they are going to pay a portion of the cost of building that extra on-ramp, and the property owners donated the needed right of way, so (MoDOT’s) portion of the cost was reduced considerably,” Lynch said. “They (city officials) were concerned about emergency vehicles having complete access between the hospital and the expressway, and that was a very understandable concern.”

New U.S. 54 turn lanes in Linn Creek

Although the project to install right and left turn lanes on both sides of U.S. 54 through Linn Creek is completed, Lynch said there has been some concern about how to use the new left and right turn and acceleration lanes.

“We have had some confusion from a few drivers who still want to make their turns on to and off (U.S.) 54 the same way they always have,” Lynch said. “There haven’t been any accidents because of the confusion, but just to make sure everyone gets used to using the lanes in the right way we have installed some directional signage. Hopefully, that will help clear up the confusion.”

Missouri 242 project

Lynch said the Missouri 242 construction project through Lake Ozark is also progressing on time.

That construction project will create a 2-mile long, four-lane highway connecting the U.S. 54 expressway entrance ramps, at the bottom of the hill below Denny’s Restaurant, to the Lake of the Ozarks Community Bridge and the Horseshoe Bend Parkway-Bagnell Dam Boulevard intersection near the Paul’s Supermarket in Lake Ozark.

The project, scheduled for completion by the end of the year, will open some 500 acres of undeveloped land inside the city of Lake Ozark for commercial and residential use.

Lynch said contractors are currently working on building the ramps that will connect the Expressway to the new roadway. He said it is necessary that this section of the project be completed first, because once new highway is built, it will cut off a portion of Fish Haven Road and leave residents there without access to their homes.

“Right now the contractor is concentrating on building that portion of the highway between the Expressway ramps and Fish Haven Road, because there are quite a few homes at the bottom of Fish Haven that will be cut off from the rest of the street by the new highway,” Lynch said.

Lynch said the current road that leads to the Community Bridge will also undergo some changes once the Missouri 242 project is completed.

“(Missouri) 242 will intersect with the road coming off the bridge near where that big sweeping curve currently is, behind the Paul’s Supermarket shopping center,” Lynch said. “The new road will have a T-like intersection instead of the curve.”

And Lynch said building that T-intersection will eliminate the need to move the traffic signal that currently serves the Bagnell Dam Boulevard-Horseshoe Bend Parkway intersection.

Lynch said once the work is completed at either end of the Missouri 242 project, the remainder of the highway construction project should go smoothly.

“They already have most of the grading and excavation work done in between the two intersections,” Lynch said. “I think they have to relocate a water main, and Ameren has to relocate some power lines, but once that is done, the rest of the work should be fairly routine.”

Lynch said he recently toured the Missouri 242 construction project and he was “surprised and very satisfied” at how much has been accomplished, and he expects the road to open by the end of the year as projected.