Industrial park overpass opens Friday after $3.4M project

After 13 months of construction and several delays, the Poplar Bluff Industrial Park overpass was opened to public travel Friday morning.

“In January of 2015, we first started talking about this project and the need for it,” Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Felicity Ray told about 50 people at Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Mid-Continent Nail needed to expand at the time, “so we needed to get this done for them,” Ray said.

“This wouldn’t be possible without the Libla family and their vision and commitment to jobs,” added Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce President Steve Halter.

The previous railroad crossing on Cravens Road, Ray said, was “an impediment several times a day,” causing long delays for traffic.

“We were able to appeal to a variety of funding agencies,” she said of the $3.4 million project.

“With the state Department of Economic Development, we were able to leverage the new jobs to be created at Mid-Continent Nail to obtain $1.4 million to start us,” she said.

Another $1 million-plus came from the Economic Development Administration, and the Delta Regional Authority chipped in more than $100,000.

Union Pacific Railroad, Ray noted, actually “gave us a little more than required” when removing a crossing.

MoDOT, Ray said, also “came to the table at the end, when we were struggling to get the last pieces of funding in, and they contributed an unprecedented amount.”

Ray described the 2,000-foot-long overpass as “the biggest project” she’s worked on in her 19 years at the planning commission.

“It took all of us working together and we got it done,” she beamed. “It’s been a huge feat, and without us all working together, we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.”

Halter agreed, saying “this is something that’s been in the works a long time. Hundreds of trucks come through here each day, along with about 3,000 cars, and this is going to help with safety and efficiency.”

During the construction phase, Ray said, “there was a hurdle every 30 to 60 days.”

“We started at the end of July 2018,” Robertson Contractors Project Manager Travis Slayton said, “but with the funding delay, we were up against the wall with winter coming on.”

Weather also was a constant problem, he said.

“The weather this year has been abnormal to say the least, and we had 20 more inches of rainfall than what we get in an average year,” he said.

The contract’s specifications, he noted, had strict requirements on work conditions, especially the grading process. With too much moisture in the ground, the work couldn’t be done.

“We only got about 140 actual working days since it started, and we made the best of every one of them,” Slayton said.

The most challenging part of the construction, Slayton said, was “getting those 140-foot beams in here and set in place.” That required close work with the railroad to avoid train delays.

Butler County Presiding Commissioner Vince Lampe said he was happy to see the overpass completed.

“The contractors and engineers worked hard for us, and it actually happened quicker than I thought it would, with all the weather and setbacks,” he said. “This project has been long needed and shows another spurt of growth for Butler County and Poplar Bluff.”