Repairs to brick road will reduce Main St. to one lane starting Monday

Area drivers using North Main, Tremont and Ninth streets in Poplar Bluff should be prepared for delays or find an alternate route for two weeks beginning Monday, March 18, as the more-than-a-century-old brick street will be undergoing improvements.

Poplar Bluff Street Department Jerry Lawson said Main Street will be reduced to one lane when the street department employees will be working between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. each day.

The Y intersection of North Main and Ninth streets are heavily travelled and Lawson warns those who travel these streets should be prepared to stop before they arrive in that area.

The city crews will take out the old concrete, will replace it with 4 inches of new concrete, 1 inch of masonry sand and set the brick back in level, Lawson explained.

Describing the area to be repaired as a “really, really rough spot,” Lawson said, once the 100 feet of work is completed the road will “be real nice and flat. We will make all efforts to put it back as smooth as possible in a timely manner and it should be lined out for several years to come,”

Selecting the best time to do the repairs has not been easy, Lawson said. The concrete would freeze if the repairs had been done in the winter. He also checked the extended forecast for a time when little or no rain is expected.

He asked the public be patient. He understands this intersection is a heavy traffic area. Lawson said it took him 20 minutes to mark off an area. He said the other side of Main street will be done in the future.

In the early 1910s, the city completed 3 1/2 miles of brick streets along Main and Vine at a cost of $86,645.