Beatrice officials finalize consulting agreement for Lincoln Street project
Extensive improvement to Lincoln from 5th to 22nd, being studied
By News Channel NebraskaBEATRICE – The City of Beatrice has hired a consulting firm to do a study and preliminary design work for Lincoln Street, between 5th and 22nd.
The city council approved the $109,000 proposal Monday night, from JEO Consultants. City Engineer James Burroughs says the firm would look at lane arrangements, parking, right-of-way, pedestrian use, bike path possibilities and the intersections of 6th and Lincoln and 19th and Lincoln, among other things.
Burroughs says the firm will also conduct public hearings.
"I believe two, is what this agreement has listed in it....where the public can look and come in and give us their feedback. There'll be several different scenarios looked at, at that time. We'll see if we can address some of their questions and concerns with this project."
Lincoln Street is one of the heaviest traveled roads in the city and serves the Gage County Courthouse and the BSDC area.
"One of the bigger components of this project..the reason we're starting to look at Lincoln Street so hard, is it's an arterial street...it's got a lot of traffic in order to go from the east side of Beatrice to the west side. I think that's only going to increase. We've all heard the stories about the new elementary and middle school going in out at 33rd and Lincoln. We kind of want to get in front of the project here and look at the corridor. The asphalt that we recently milled and overlayed is already deteriorating quickly. Instead of throwing money at a project and keep re-doing those projects every five years, we wanted a more permanent solution that will last."
Burroughs says estimated costs of various alternatives would be included in the consultant’s report, which is anticipated to be completed in June.
"Do we want to do a phased approach, do we want to do two blocks at a time, do we want to do half the project, do we want to do all the project at once... we also have to look at how do we want to fund the project?."
Monday night elected officials also approved a bid of TopKote, Inc. of Yankton South Dakota…for this year’s armor-coating maintenance work on various city streets. That work totals just under $67,000. The council also approved a final payment of some $252,000 for a Big Blue River water main crossing project.