Officials are ready to break ground on the Highway 67 south improvement project, a goal nearly 20 years in the making.
An official ceremony will be held Sept. 22 with everyone from the governor to local and county officials invited, but contractors are expected to start work within the next few days on the stretch of future Interstate 57, said Bill Robison, chairman of the Highway 67 Corporation, which has spearheaded this effort.
“This project has been around as everybody knows since the citizens of Poplar Bluff got involved in April of 2005 (with) the Highway 67 north (improvement) project and the success of that,” Robison said. “Actually starting construction (to the south) is a good feeling. Getting this to the state line and seeing the progress that’s happening in Arkansas is amazing.”
The groundbreaking ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. Sept. 22, at property near Rice Trailers.
Work will be done on the first three-fourths of a mile of the project, including a new interchange at highways 67 and 160, Robison said. It will, among other things, remove the long, sharp turn from the northbound on-ramp that was constructed in 2014, and create a more traditional set of on and off ramps.
HR Quadri of Van Buren will do the first $7.5 million project, which improves Phase 1A to interstate standards. Funding for this phase also comes from the Governor’s Cost Share program.
The majority of the 1A work, which will include lane closures, is expected to occur in the first part of 2023 through the end of 2023.
The first four miles of the 67 south improvements are fully funded through state, local and federal programs. A voter-approved Poplar Bluff sales tax initiative is helping pay for the cost to four-lane and upgrade to interstate standards the miles of Highway 67 between Poplar Bluff and the state line.
Robison expects construction on the next fully-funded phases of the project to begin by the time work on Phase 1A is ending. The first 4 miles from Poplar Bluff to the Arkansas state line are fully funded.
Officials had applied for a federal RAISE grant to help pay for the next unfunded portion of the Highway 67 project but were not successful, Robison said.
They will continue to pursue additional state and federal funds to help with the costs, he said.
Robison is also hopefully about the future of the four-lane effort from the Arkansas border to the south.
“We strongly believe we’ll see funding from Arkansas in an upcoming state transportation improvement plan,” he said. “Arkansas has always been a great partner.”
These sections of highway have been designated as future Interstate 57, offering a safer and faster way to travel between Chicago and Dallas, officials have said.
Robison said they have seen proof of this from the results of the Highway 67 north improvement project, which paid to upgrade the road to four lanes between Poplar Bluff and Fredericktown.
“We’ve always talked about safety and economic development,” he said. “The project north has been a great success.”