MoDOT resurfacing project to begin Tuesday

By Harry Loomis

The Missouri Department of Transportation will start resurfacing three busy roads in the St. Joseph area next week.

Work will take place at Pear Street from Belt Highway to 22nd Street, on South Route 59 from U.S. 71 to Country Club Road and on Route 752 from 22nd Street to Route 59.

“As they reached the end or near the end of the service life, we would try to apply either preventative maintenance treatments to extend the life of the payments or in this case we have to remove the existing layer and add new structure to the payment,” said Austin Hibler, construction and materials engineer for MoDOT’s northwest division.

At each construction side, traffic will be reduced to one lane. Resurfacing on Pear Street will have a pilot car that will be directing traffic.

“It’s pretty typical to close a lane and then utilize a pilot car to guide motorists through the work zone from from both directions on areas where we have multiple lanes going in a single direction,” Hibler said. “We have the capability to just physically close the lane and and shift traffic down to a single lane or out of that area.”

The project will run Monday through Saturday with daily closures. Work is expected to complete by the middle of April.