Marion County Highway Engineer Mike McCormick says repairs are coming soon to rough sections of the Kinoka and Bell Club Roads.
He told the Marion County Road and Bridge Committee Thursday night that DePew and Owen of Centralia will be replacing nine failed sections of the Kinoka Road between Route 37 and the I-57 interchange. Each of the sections is 20 feet in width. As a result of the problem, mud was coming up between the sections and the road surface had become rough. McCormick says the work should be completed before the end of the year.
McCormick also reported Howell Paving would be patching areas of the Bell Club Road that have sunk following repaving. He says the patches should fix the rough ride. The work should be completed in the next two weeks. McCormick reported repairs continue to the Skillet Fork Bridge on the Route 161 Extension that currently has a ten ton weight limit and is one way traffic. He reports four of the six spans have now been fixed and he hopes the roadway can be reopened to two way traffic with no weight limit by the first of the year.
The committee was told design for the replacement of the bridge on Cross Road a quarter mile east of Route 37 is now 95-percent complete.
McCormick is still hoping for bids to be let and for construction to take place in the spring. The bridge has been closed to traffic for several years creating some long detours.
The full county board Tuesday night will be asked to approve a $47,000 contract with Gonzalez and Company to begin design work on replacement of a bridge on Racetrack Road three-fourths of a mile south of Route 161. McCormick said emergency repairs were made to the bridge seven years ago to get it reopened, but its remaining life is limited. As a result, he wants to get the four year replacement project underway. Federal and state money will pay for 80-percent of the project cost, with the township and county responsible for ten-percent apiece.
