Work is wrapping up this week on an approximately $3.4 million overpass project at the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park.
Striping on the road is expected to finish by the end of this week, said Butler County Presiding Commissioner Vince Lampe. The overpass is being built by Robertson Contractors of Poplar Bluff.
A ribbon cutting ceremony is planned for 9:30 a.m. Friday at the site, on the west side of the railroad tracks.
Cravens Road is expected to reopen to normal traffic after the ceremony, Lampe said.
The project will improve safety at an intersection officials have said, which saw 25 trains a day, along with up to 2,000 vehicles, when it was open before construction began on the overpass project.
Efforts to secure funding for the project began more than four years ago, when the county received a $1.4 million grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development and $1 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The grants were awarded because of an expansion in 2014 by Mid-Continent Nail that added over 70 jobs to the industrial park.
In 2015, project costs were expected to be about $2.7 million in total.
While officials tried to close funding gaps, costs for the project went up and additional changes were needed to the design.
When bids were sought and opened in July 2017, they were approximately $700,000 higher than the original budget. Costs for a crash wall alone had doubled, to approximately $1 million, in the span of a year, engineers said at the time.
Butler County announced in March it would contribute $250,000 to the project, after other funding fell through.
That money will be taken from its eastern and western district road funds. The county’s cost prior to this had been about $33,000 of in-kind work.
Lampe has said he was negotiating with a state agency to provide the final $500,000.
Grant money and other funding will cover the remainder of the costs.