Work on I-80 moving east

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BY ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star

Attention to widening Interstate 80 in the Lincoln area is about to shift eastward.

Contractors are wrapping up work near  Lincoln Municipal Airport and turning to an estimated $45 million project between the 56th Street and I-180 interchanges for the next three years.

“You might see some minor winter work and full construction will start next season,” said Khalil Jaber, a program management engineer with the Nebraska Department of Roads.

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Interstate 80 traffic meets construction just north of the Ruff crossing near Gretna in April 2004 as part of a project to complete a six-lane route between Lincoln and Omaha. (LJS file)

Interstate 80 traffic meets construction just north of the Ruff crossing near Gretna in April 2004 as part of a project to complete a six-lane route between Lincoln and Omaha. (LJS file)

An engineer’s estimate projects spending of $14.9 million in the first year between two of Lincoln’s busiest entry and exit routes. Jaber said four-lane traffic would be maintained throughout by adding temporary lanes and shifting all vehicles to one side of the median.

Roads officials presided Thursday at a bid opening where the partnership of Lincoln’s Dobson Brothers and the Iowa-based United Contractors had the apparent low bid of almost $48.8 million for the three-year project.

Roads personnel will examine the contractor offer more closely over the next week to 10 days before making a final selection.

When finished, the stretch north of the downtown area will be added to the six-lane slab that road crews began pouring on Omaha’s western outskirts in 2002.

The latest targeted completion date for the 44 miles of lane expansion from Omaha to Northwest 56th Street in Lincoln is 2013. The expected total cost is about $350 million.

Terry Gibson, a roadway design engineer and the official in charge of the interstate project, said the last two stretches are likely to be from Waverly to 56th Street and from Northwest 48th Street westward.

On track to be added yet this year is the stretch between the I-180 route to and from downtown Lincoln and the connection with the U.S. Highway 77 bypass a few miles to the west.

The same goes for the miles between the Nebraska Highway 370 connection to Gretna and Mahoney State Park.

“We’re hoping to have that open and traffic off head to head by December of this year,” Gibson said.

The Department of Roads unveiled its 2008 surface transportation plan in mid-July.

Gone almost entirely from the most immediate road priorities, because of funding limits, are four-lane additions to U.S. Highways 81, 77 and other key routes in the Nebraska Expressway system.

Apart from what Jaber described as one possible exception — finishing the four lanes between Kimball and Scottsbluff on U.S. Highway 71 — “we can tell you there are no new starts, period.”

Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or at ahovey@alltel.net.