Boone County is trying to find funds for a construction project to widen lanes on the Route Z bridge over Interstate 70.
The grant proposal to the Missouri Department of Transportation comes as the county looks to ensure safe travel to Battle High School, which opens next year. MoDOT Area Engineer Mike Schupp says the goal is for construction to be completed while school is out of session.
“If it is approved, the number one that thing we need to get done is to have that bridge done before school starts. That bridge would have to be done while school is not in session. So if it’s not done in the summer of 2013 it would have to take place in the summer of 2014.”
Boone County has requested that MoDOT help pay for the cost of the construction. Schupp says he expects MoDOT to make a decision this summer, and that construction could be completed in summer 2013.
“The cost-share committee meets at the end of the month to review, and then they make the decision in July, so in July we should know if that cost-share application is approved,” said Schupp.
Schupp says the road would remain open during construction and that traffic would not be affected.