The Missouri Department of Transportation celebrated the opening of Hwy. 6 in Daviess County with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday, Dec. 17, at the intersection of Route O, four miles east of Gallatin. The project started in April of 2007 with an award amount of $6,660,838.55.
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The project was a major factor in getting the Daviess Route 6 corridor classified as a major route. The result is that future major route improvements such as resurfacing and shoulder improvements will include Route 6.
At the ribbon cutting, Don Wichern, MoDOT district engineer for District One, praised the community’s support for making the improvements to Hwy. 6 possible. He said under the leadership of MoDOT’s new director Pete Rahn, the department was demonstrating its willingness to listen to the customer’s needs. He felt that MoDOT was showing a greater sensitivity to the surroundings of its projects. “We’re proving to the public that we’ve changed,” he said.
County Commissioner Danny Heldenbrand said he had become a fan of practical design. He said it was a common sense approach to engineering and design and also involved reaching out to the people in the community.
“They consider what we want and need,” he said. Mr. Held- enbrand cited the altering of the original plan to change one of the bridges into a box culvert instead of a full-scale bridge as an example of the cost-efficient method of ‘practical design.’
“The result is a savings both to MoDOT and to the taxpayers,” he said.
Randy Railsback, director of Green Hills Regional Planning Commission, said when it came to Hwy. 6 all players did their part.
“This is how it is supposed to work,” he said. In giving speeches around the area, he often used the Hwy. 6 project as a successful example of what can happen when all parties cooperate.
Mr. Railsback said his chief concern at the begining of the project was, “If we don’t do it right now, we may never have the opportunity again.” He said the people’s input at public meeting and hearings went far in determining MoDOT plans and decisions.
“All goals were met,” he said. “And everybody won.”
David Tolen, who served as the county’s presiding commissioner during the long haul to implement Hwy. 6, expressed his appreciation to MoDOT. He said his family lives on Hwy. O and now that the hill has been cut on Hwy. 6, they can see oncoming traffic as they pull out on the roadway. He added that it no longer posts so risky a problem to farmers driving large farming equipment and grain trucks.
Project Information:
Project length: 2.6 miles
New bridges: 2 (Big Muddy Creek
and Brushy Creek)
Bridge width: 40 ft.
Lane width: 12 ft.
Shoulder width: 8 ft.
Earth volume: Approx. 300,000
cubic yards were excavated
Pavement: 40,000 square yards
Pavement depth: 10 inches
Right of Way: 41 acres purchased
Contractor: Chester Bross Constr.
Resident Engineer: Dave Scrivens
Area Engineer: Marty Liles
Project Manager: Wes Moore
Designer: Russ O’Daniell team
Project cost: $6,616,725 (through
August 2007, with the project
not closed out).