BEATRICE – A major resurfacing project on one of the two highways through Beatrice won’t come off, this year.


Beatrice City officials have learned that the Nebraska Department of Transportation has pushed the project back to the 2026 construction season. U.S. Highway 136 from around Second Street east to around 19th was scheduled to be resurfaced this summer.


Some patching work had been done on that stretch the past year, in preparation for the state project. Similar work on the north-south U.S. Highway 77 through Beatrice is tentatively set for 2027.


While the state project has changed, local officials will be tackling other work this year. Street Superintendent Jason Moore says his crews will be replacing more than a dozen catch basin storm drain lids along U.S. Highway 77.  "The ones along the highway are precast. You tell them what you want in Lincoln, and they ship them to you, on the state design. We're going around right now....I think I've got fourteen of them on 77, or Sixth Street....that we're going to look to replace, over the summer."  Moore says a couple of the lids will also be replaced on U.S. 136.

Moore, who also serves as Beatrice Landfill Superintendent, says design work has been going on for Southwest 32nd Road….in advance of construction of a new landfill, expected to get underway this fall.


Officials reported progress to the Board of Public Works on what will be done with the area around 33rd and Lincoln, near the new Beatrice elementary school. City Engineer James Burroughs says the city is looking at temporary and permanent easements for that project.  Bids will be taken starting in early April, with bid approval expected by the Board of Public Works and City Council in early May.


Burroughs says a new water main installation along 33rd Street will take place before the intersection work starts. "Right now, there are water services that go all the way from the (Evergreen Home) cemetery...all the way up to Lincoln Street to hit the existing water main. So we would extend water main down 33rd, and we'll probably start within a couple of weeks getting that done prior to the roadway project."


The water main installation will be done by city water department crews. Street crews are also making concrete repairs around the community, during recent good weather.