The renovation of Highway 2 on the west side of Broken Bow toward Merna is nearing completion, according to Nebraska Department of Transportation District 6 Highway Project Manager Daniel Lewandowski.
KCNI/KBBN Spoke with Lewandowski on Wednesday, October 1 to get an update on the summer-long project, now in its final stretch.
Lewandowski said all asphalt has been laid down for the project between Merna and Broken Bow. Work on guardrails should be completed, and shoulders are being made ready for grass seed and cover.
One item still up in the air is road markings. The new island turn lane markings require a special process and paint according to Lewandowski.
“It is that wet reflective polyurea pavement marking,” said Lewandoski. “And it’s grooved and the reason we say it’s grooved is because we cut a groove into the roadway, and then we put that paint into there so it’s basically a colored plastic with colored beads, and we grew it in the road. So then when we do the snow plows, it’s below the depth of that blade so that doesn’t get scratched or cut off.”
Once the paint contractor has completed their work, the only remaining steps will be to cut rumble bars on the outside and mid-line of the roadway to alert drivers if they begin to drift out of their lane.
Other projects in the area though are ongoing or about to get under way. Lewandowski noted progress is being made on work on Highway 183 for 16 miles south of Ansley. Placement of the bottom layer of hotmix asphalt is about halfway done on that project.
Coming up still this year, work will start on roads north into Blaine County.
“And then, then yet this fall, what we’re still going to do Anselmo toward Dunning – basically the Custer County line going up highway to toward Dunning,” said Lewandowski. “We still have every intention to complete that project this year.”
