Construction projects along major highways in southwest Missouri remain on schedule, despite recent heavy rains and flooding.
Andrew Mueller, MoDOT’s assistant district engineer in Springfield, says workers have factored rain days into the project timelines to avoid delays.
He adds, “They took advantage of some fantastic weather we had earlier in the construction season to get ahead of schedule.”
Among the Springfield projects impacting traffic include route 65 and Battlefield Rd and along Kansas Expressway.
Each project’s budget includes the total cost to deliver them on time. The 65 and Battlefield project is currently at a $12.5 million budget with Sept 30 completion date, according to the MoDOT website.
“We pride ourselves at keeping our projects on budget. We have been able to deliver all of our projects in the southwest area 100 percent of them on time by the completion date and within 1 percent of the project budget,” Mueller said.
The budget also includes costs to keep rainfall from affecting the projects and the environment around them.
“When we get all this constant rain on these projects our focus switches from completing the pavement and the bridge and the hardware type items to keeping our erosion control measures intact,” said Mueller.
When rainfall cost projections exceed what was budgeted, contractors are paid an additional amount to keep those erosion control measures intact, according to Mueller.
In addition, Mueller advises drivers to take appropriate safely measures in dangerous weather, especially near work zones.
“We encourage drivers to use extreme caution both during the heavy rainfall event itself. When visibility is low please reduce your speed,” he said.