Rain causes construction delays across Mid-Missouri

With so many rain delays the last few weeks, many construction projects across Mid-Missouri are seeing delays.

In Jefferson City, the rain is presenting several challenges, according to Britt Smith with Jefferson City Public Works.

“Not only does it delay contract work, but as you might imagine we have work that we want to get done with our own forces,” Britt said. “There’s potholes that need to be filled, there’s different projects that were planned in concrete repairs, etc. And those things get delayed. And at the same time, this heavy rain does cause problems in itself in that if you have some street flooding, we get debris on the road, trees down.”

Smith said the rain this month and last is causing more construction delays than usual, the largest being the reconstruction of the main runway at the Jefferson City Memorial Airport. Smith said crews still have to pour a large amount of concrete.

“The airport project is certainly impacted by this,” Smith said. “When you’re trying to pour concrete and it’s raining every day, it seems like, it does make it pretty hard to pour concrete. But we are working very closely with our contractor and the consulting engineer on the project developing a plan. Unfortunately we have to redevelop a plan it seems like almost every day.”

Smith said the rain is also delaying several storm water projects around the city, including one at Brandy Lane and Satinwood Drive. There is also a box culvert replacement that is delayed on Don Ray Drive.

“It’s a project not too far from the Missouri River,” Smith said. “And as you know, we’ve had the river come up and back down, and up and back down, and so we’ve seen some back water coming up onto that project as well.”

In Columbia, public works said the rain has put a couple projects on pause too, including the safety enhancement project on College Avenue. Crews were also supposed to start work on a stormwater project on Sunset Drive and will not be able to start until Monday, July 13. However, no projects are behind schedule yet.

Boone County Public Works said its annual pavement preservation has also been pushed back by the wet weather. Dust control applications have been rescheduled as well.