By Jack Underwood, Editor
MoDOT awarded the contract for expedited repairs of a landslide on Highway U to Karrenbrock Construction Inc., a New Melle-based construction company, for nearly $1.5 million.
Highway U has been closed to traffic for a mile or so, about 10 miles south of Warrenton, since May 9, when engineers first noticed a shift in the roadway. Shortly thereafter, three landslides on the roadway swept away large sections of the road surface and the adjacent slope.
Repairs were originally expected to be completed in spring 2025. Thanks to the efforts of local elected officials and landowner Steve Kreps, who donated the land needed to create the right-of-way to complete the project, work has since been accelerated and is now expected to be completed on November 6 of this year.
Jeff Niemeyer, MoDOT’s area engineer, said that although Karrenbrock received the contract as the lowest bid of the 10 bids received, the contract has not yet been fully completed and he is not sure when construction will begin. However, he expects it to begin “soon.”
He was also satisfied with the number of offers received.
“For a tender with a deadline of 10 days, that’s really good,” said Niemeyer.
This contract also includes incentives and disincentives tied to the November 6 completion date. Karrenbrock has the opportunity to receive additional funding if the project is completed early, but there will be costs associated with not completing the project on time.
Matt Auping, project manager and cost estimator at Karrenbrock, said they plan to start on August 26, the date of the construction permit issued by MoDOT, but acknowledged that this is contingent on the completion of contract negotiations.
Auping also expressed confidence that the deadline of 6 November could be met and was optimistic that the project could possibly be completed ahead of schedule.
“We will do our best to get in before November 6,” said Auping.
Niemeyer would like to once again express his thanks to those who helped make this project possible in such a tight time frame.
“I’m happy that it’s continuing this year. The cooperation with the people from the right-of-way authority has been great,” Niemeyer said.
