Clarkson in the News: KMBC 9 Tours the Buck O’Neil Bridge Project
July 12, 2023
Kearney, Missouri is open for business as new interchange prepares to open
KEARNEY, Mo. —
"Kearney is open for business," exclaimed Kearney Mayor Randy Pogue. And soon - so will the roads leading to with this Clay County community.
A brand new interchange is being built along I-35 at 19th Street (144th Street). It may not seem like a big deal to most, but MODOT area engineer, Ben McCabe says otherwise.
"92 Highway is one of the major East-West corridors in Clay and Platte counties, the next one is down at 152," McCabe explained. "So that helped. They [the city] were willing to partner to come up with over half the funding for this project. The citizens said they wanted this and we were able to partner with them and help deliver this project."
In addition to the new interchange being build along I-35, the city is working on new roads at either end of the project.
"This is a big deal for the city of Kearney because it's really going to open [us] up opportunities for commercial development in our community, said Mayor Pogue.
And the project has been on time, scheduled to open mid-November. The only wrinkle that construction crews had to keep an eye on was weather.
"Oh it's our biggest nemesis out here.," remarked Brian Cichello, senior project manager with Clarkson Construction, the team behind the project. "We can have 2 weeks of great weather and one rain day shuts it down for a few days. really its a momentum killer once you start getting things going it just backs other sub contractors and crews up so you kinda have to reschedule"
