Last week, about 20 men and women drove and walked the path of the long-awaited South Beltway.
With preliminary design plans in hand, the engineers and environmentalists, design consultants, right-of-way staff and construction staff from state, county and city government looked for potential conflicts with utilities and grade changes. They considered how an interchange might impact existing homes and businesses.
The Nov. 24 “plan-in-hand walk†was a milestone of sorts for those involved in the beltway that will one day shift much of the heavy truck traffic off Nebraska 2 in south Lincoln.
And it marked the highest point yet for the men and women who have watched the South Beltway inch forward from dream to reality.
“It was kind of exciting to get out there and see the progress and see more concretely what is going to be built,†said Randy Hoskins, an assistant city engineer.
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Hoskins was a toddler in the 1960s when city and state engineers began looking at potential corridors for a beltway that would combine with Interstate 80 to circle the city.
The West Bypass eventually was built, the entire stretch opening to traffic in 1987. There are still two new interchanges planned, one at Warlick Boulevard and another at Pioneers Boulevard, before the beltway can achieve freeway status, according to Jason Jurgens, environmental section manager for the Nebraska Department of Roads.
The East Bypass is still a vision, with no funding identified.
But the South Beltway is well on its way toward construction, with most of the federally required reports and studies already checked off.
Those included an independent consultant's review to identify potential engineering efficiencies and studies exploring the need for the bypass.
The most recent studies have projected that 80 percent of the semitrailers and 20 percent of the smaller trucks that now use Nebraska 2 will move to the South Bypass, Hoskins said.
The project to link Nebraska 2 to the southeast of Lincoln with U.S. 77 southwest of the city, estimated to cost $200 million, hit a financial roadblock in 2009, but was rejuvenated in 2013 after the Legislature passed the Build Nebraska Act, earmarking a quarter-cent of the state sales tax for roads, Jurgens said.
The beltway was identified as a priority since it would provide a freeway connection from Nebraska 2 traffic to Interstate 80. County Engineer Pam Dingman said its completion should also take the pressure off of Saltillo Road, which based on daily traffic counts is used by many to link U.S. 77 and 70th Street.
The state expects to begin right-of-way purchase for the 11-mile, four-lane South Beltway in 2017, after a final public hearing on environmental issues next summer, Jurgens said.Â
Construction could begin as early as the spring of 2020. The beltway could be completed in five to seven years.