West Beltway remains on track

(Photo submitted) An aerial view of the city gave about 50 citizens a bird's eye look at plans for the West Spencer Beltway project. Residents had a chance to comment about project details at an informational meeting Tuesday.

A meeting about efforts to direct truck traffic away from downtown Spencer drew about 50 people Tuesday to the Clay County Administration Building.

The residents received an update on the West Spencer Beltway expansion project. It connects a recently-created road near Menards to the road system near the Clay County Sheriff's Office in west Spencer.

The project continues with the expansion of Spencer's industrial road to three lanes, just north of the sheriff's office. It ends with a connection to U.S. Highway 18 west of the city.

Currently, Highway 18 takes east- or west-bound travelers through the heart of Spencer using Grand Avenue. North- and south-bound travelers on U.S. Highway 71 also have to use Grand Avenue to get through town if they want to stay on that major highway.

"In general I'd say everybody was pretty positive about it, except for a couple of people on the south end (of the project) -- it was going to change the way they live down there because it was dead end and a nice, quiet place," said Clay County Engineer Scott Rinehart.

The beltway begins a turn north using 200th Avenue, and contractors will have to construct a road and bridge in first 1/2 mile in an area south of the sheriff's office.

Rinehart said the meeting was part as a public relations effort to give residents a chance to voice ideas and concerns. The meeting also is a part of the required process when federal money is used to purchase right-of-way access.

A $5 million grant has been secured for the project, but Rinehart said the county can only count on about 85 percent of the federal earmark to come through.

At least $1 million in local funding is needed to meet a 20 percent federal matching funds requirement. The city of Spencer and Clay County are splitting that obligation.

The beltway will be broken up into three phases for the bidding process. Rinehart hopes to take bids on the bridge construction and first half-mile near the sheriff's office in November. A grading project is planned in the spring of 2010 and the industrial park improvements are tentatively slated for November of 2010. Rinehart would like to see the entire project completed by the fall of 2011.

"So far we're running real close to the schedule we chose," he said.

The project's price tag has been harder to gauge. When fuel prices shot past the $4 per gallon mark over the summer, Rinehart became concerned about the prospects of scaling back the project.

"Now, prices are settling back down, so we're just having a hard time estimating what the total project cost is going to be," he said. "But, as far as the time schedule, we're good."

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WEST BELTWAY DETAILS:

* The West Spencer Beltway begins 1 1/2 miles west of the Menards corner partially using a recently completed road in the area. The beltway then turns north using 200th Avenue -- there is currently no road or bridge for the first 1/2 mile.

* A bridge will be constructed and will connect the beltway to the road system south of the sheriff's office.

* The project will continue north of the sheriff's office along the industrial park road. Clay County Engineer Scott Rinehart would like to take the ditches out of the industrial road mile and convert the roadway to three lanes, with curb and gutter, a center lane and 10-foot shoulders all the way to Highway 18.