A public hearing on the South Beltway environmental assessment, scheduled for Oct. 3, will be the last major public meeting before the state wraps up buying rights-of-way and launches construction on the 11-mile freeway project.
The meeting at the Sesostris Shrine Center, 1050 Saltillo Road, is both an open house, where people can talk with department staff from 5-6 p.m., and a forum, where people can speak as part of a public presentation from 6-7:30 p.m.
"This is an opportunity for the public to come in and tell us things we don’t know ... to give us their perspective,†said Thomas Goodbarn, District 1 engineer for the State Department of Transportation.
“We want it to look good and fit right into the community†and have as few environmental impacts as possible, he added.
State engineers think they have planned well, “but we never know until we talk to the folks who live there,†Goodbarn said.
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The project will require the acquisition of additional rights-of-way, mostly agricultural land. Potentially three homes and one business could be relocated, based on information provided for the public hearing.
Construction is expected to begin in fall 2019 or spring 2020 on the freeway, which will connect U.S. 77 and Nebraska 2 south of Lincoln. Building the freeway is expected to take five to seven years and to cost $250 million to $300 million.
This is likely to be one of the most expensive projects the Department of Transportation has ever constructed. Funding will come primarily from state funds drawn from the Build Nebraska Act. The city and county are also contributing to beltway costs.
The South Beltway has been designed to be a four-lane highway, two lanes in each direction, with shoulders, and a depressed median. Five interchanges are planned — at U.S. 77, Nebraska 2 and near 27th, at 68th and 82nd streets.
During construction, periodic detours are expected on Saltillo Road, and along 27th, 54th, 68th, 82nd and 96th streets, according to information provided for the public hearing.
Officials said only one road would be closed at a time.
The latest plan includes changes based on the environmental assessment, including building a bridge rather than a box culvert over a stream near Wilderness Park and some modifications to interchange ramps to protect wetland areas.
Eventually, construction of the beltway and traffic in the area should lead to economic development. But initially it will get trucks off Nebraska 2 through Lincoln and improve safety, he said.
This will likely be the last large public forum, though the Department of Transportation will probably be holding smaller meetings for affected landowners, according to Goodbarn.
Lincoln began planning for a beltway loop around the city in the 1960s. The original impact statement for the South and East Beltways was finished in 2002, but the projects were put on hold in 2008 because construction funds were not available.
The South Beltway project was revived in 2013 when the Legislature passed the Build Nebraska Act, which draws a quarter-cent of the state's 5.5-cent sales tax for highway improvement. It is expected to raise about $70 million a year for 20 years to be used on projects statewide.Ìý
The state revived the South Beltway plans, but not the East Beltway.
“This will be a beautiful project. It will fit well in the landscape and it will get trucks off Highway 2."
"It’s going to be a breath of fresh air and a boost to safety,†Goodbarn said.