Reconstructing South 13th in Beatrice, to require some patience

BEATRICE – One of the largest public works projects this coming year in Beatrice will be a reconstruction on South 13th Street, between Beaver and Oak Street.
City Engineer James Burroughs the concrete project was bid last year, but a busy contractor schedule shifted the work to this year. City officials are looking at a tentative start to the project in April.

"We're going to try to have a public open house meeting, just because that project is going to take a lot of phasing to get people in and out. Some of those areas only have one way in and one way out, so we have to work with them to make sure that can happen. Phasing will be a big part of that project."

R.L. Tiemann Construction is the contractor for the street project. Thirteenth is one of two routes to the Beatrice Country Club and major residential areas south and east of the golf course.  A gravel section that extends east on Beaver Street is a platted road, but it is not a through street. That means there’s only three driveway access points to several homes along the east side of 13th…a one-way in, one-way out situation.

Burroughs says the city plans to have work done on the base of the road to solve a settling problem….and install new concrete.  "This project may take a little bit longer than normal, because of the phasing; We actually have to wait for the concrete cure times to take place to get traffic shoved back onto that concrete. You might see a piece of concrete poured, but we have to wait seven to ten days before it gets strength. We're thinking 60 to 90 days, I think, is the window that we allowed the contractor.....but we're going to try to get people in and out the best we can."

An access to that area of the city will remain, with Oak Street….which runs south and then east-west.

"We're going to try to put some message boards out there, because they're going to have some big events out there this coming summer with some of the golf tournaments...so we're going to try to direct the traffic as best we can with some of the message boards and try to tell them to take the other road around. We're going to try to keep 13th open, maybe with some one-way sections along there, but if we can get traffic to turn ahead of that, it will really relieve some of that congestion."

Another major project that will likely get underway this summer is the 33rd and Lincoln intersection, near the new Beatrice prekindergarten to fifth grade school…..scheduled to open next school year.  Burroughs says there will be three access points to the school off Lincoln Street….and two off 33rd Street. Some will be one-way, in or out of the school property.