With the summer already arriving, the new Missouri Route 19 Bridge project in New Florence is wrapping up its second stage of construction.

Roundabouts are being constructed in the $10 million project. North and South Outer Roads to the west of Highway 19 are closed, forcing drivers to cruise through the newly constructed Clark Drive to get to businesses such as McDonalds, the Shell gas station, America’s Best Value Inn and Fireworks City, which will be open from June 24-July 5.

Drivers have to go on a 30 mile-per-hour speed limit when they approach the north and south ends of the overpass during construction. Also, the traffic lights were taken out and a bridge deck was recently added.

“Currently, they’re building the roundabouts on the west side,” Missouri Department of Transportation Area Engineer Jeff Niemeyer said. “They got the outer roads shut down while they were putting those connections together. We’ll be doing that for a while. We’re also working on getting the slip ramps in there. Eventually, we’ll have to close down the ramps and then we’ll have a slip ramp on the outer roads there.”

Two 172 feet-by-212 feet oval roundabouts will be built on the new bridge, which will be located west of the existing bridge. The project has six stages of construction. Niemeyer said the area residents need to have patience during construction.

“Any job which has a lot of phases, you will get calls and concerns (from area residents),” Niemeyer said. “When you’re working on I-70 and you have businesses on all of the corners, you’re going to have to impact them to get the bridge replaced.”

Niemeyer said workers will start on stage three of construction later this summer. There will be detours in the eastbound I-70 off-ramp and the westbound I-70 on-ramp. A portion of Highway 19 south of the interchange will be closed.

Construction on the bridge began in October. It slowed down during the winter due to a major winter storm that hit the area. Work will still be finished around May 2024, when the old bridge will be removed.

“The spring was pretty wet, so we were a month behind schedule,” Niemeyer said. “Recently, we had great weather that was brought back up, so everything is looking good to be done by the completion date.”