U.S. Highway 65 improvements progress

Continuing rapid progress of highway and bridge improvements were the major points of discussion at a Partners In Progress meeting held at Hollister Town Hall Thursday afternoon.

“Hollister City Administrator Rick Ziegenfuss chaired the meeting and discussed progress of the U.S. 65 improvement project inside Hollister city limits, the new U.S. 65 bridge over Lake Taneycomo, the future widening of U.S. 65 to the Arkansas border and the proposed East West Corridor project.

“All of the construction going on is moving ahead nicely and we want to strongly stress to the public that safety is of the utmost concern in all of these projects,” Ziegenfuss said. “We are enforcing the new

construction zone speed limits with all law enforcement agencies as we insist on safety for both the public and the workers.

“Law enforcement officials from Missouri State Highway Patrol, Taney County Sheriff’s Department, Branson Police Department and our Hollister Police Department have met together and determined that they will all enforce the construction speed limits,” Ziegenfuss said. “Some minimal delays can be expected, but we ask everyone to remain patient as these projects will give us a better system of roadways when they are completed.”

Construction of the new bridge has also progressed quickly with a lot of work being done on both the access areas to the new bridge and with the bridge supports under Lake Taneycomo. “We have made progress on the new bridge, but there will be time next week when we will have to work from the existing bridge during evening hours and we will once again appreciate a law enforcement presence,” APAC-Missouri Superintendent Gene Havens said. “We have been pleased with boaters taking it easy around our work area also as we are very safety conscious with our workers and the public.”

Improvements to U.S. 65 to the Arkansas border are progressing with 95 percent of the right-of-way lands being procured and the contract will be awarded on May 19, 2006. Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) designers are currently working on final designs for the project.

The East West Corridor is something the City of Hollister has deemed necessary to help with traffic flow in and out of the city and also ease access to and egress from U.S. 65. “We are going to take this issue up with Taney County Commissioners on Dec. 1,” Ziegenfuss said. “The first $4 million of the road is included in our proposed Tax Increment Finance District and we want their approval of the idea.

“We believe that the east-west corridor is critical for Hollister and county commissioners agree with us on that issue,”

Ziegenfuss said. “There is a lot of work to be done on the design and exact location of the

projected road “The City of Hollister has worked very hard with MoDOT and the contractors

to get these projects completed as it has previously been very difficult to move north and south on U.S. 65 through Hollister,” Ziegenfuss said. “People can now see that things are definitely going to get a lot better in the near future.”

During the different phases of construction, road information will be broadcast on MoDOT radio 1610 AM, City of Hollister website at cityofhollister.com and the MoDOT website at modot.state.mo.us.