The first bite of earth for the South Beltway came out of a cornfield near U.S. 77 and Saltillo Road in May 2020.
Then contractors took another. And another.
Two years later, Hawkins Construction and its army of dozers, diggers, scrapers and haulers have moved 5.25 million cubic yards of dirt along the 11-mile-long construction site — enough to fill nearly 300,000 dump trucks.
They’re almost done with that heavy lifting, needed to shape roadways and build bridge embankments. Just 500,000 more cubic yards to move.
They’re also 86% finished building the 21 bridges — ranging in length from 143 feet to nearly a half-mile — that will carry the new four-lane freeway over and under other roads, railroads, creeks and a bike trail. Six spans, including crossings at 54th and 68th streets, are already open.
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And they’ve poured 53% of the 850,000 square yards of concrete, or about 175 acres, required to give east-west travelers smooth passage between far southeast Lincoln and Interstate 80.
“Everything's gone really well. Everything's working smoothly,†said Alan Hayes, a Hawkins project manager. “We’ve got a heavy lift this year, but we’re on track to be open on time.â€
Which means the South Beltway project — a dream for decades, a way to keep big-rig traffic from clogging a main artery through Lincoln — will open by May 1, 2023, the state’s deadline for substantial completion.
And the big road will open all at once, not in phases, said Curt Mueting, a state construction engineer overseeing the project from a temporary office near U.S. 77 and Saltillo Road.
On the chosen day, the barriers will be lifted, and traffic will flow freely from Nebraska 2 near 134th Street to U.S. 77 near Saltillo Road.
Past five interchanges, 26 miles of chain-link fence, 12,000 feet of storm sewer pipe, 33,000 feet of drainage pipe. And unencumbered by the 17 stoplights that now slow and stop traffic on Nebraska 2’s route through Lincoln.
By 2025, the state expects 13,600 vehicles to travel the central stretch of the beltway daily, including 1,700 semis — reducing truck traffic through Lincoln by two-thirds.
At least that’s the $352 million plan.
“We’re gaining on it,†Mueting said. “We’ve got a lot of work done but, of course, we’ve got quite a bit of work to go.â€
So this week, an estimated 150 contractors were scattered across the site’s 11-mile footprint, performing a host of duties.
Some were grading topsoil, or seeding, or working erosion control. Some were building bridges, installing underground fiber, running electrical, planting signs or conducting traffic control.
And some were paving or getting ready to pave — mixing lime with the soil to stabilize it, then adding a layer of crushed concrete to fortify it.
Lots of moving parts, but Hawkins has done a good job keeping them all coordinated, Mueting said. And the company didn’t let pandemic-related supply chain problems detour the project.
“Knowing the pace of this project and how fast it needs to occur, they really stayed on their game and ordered the material early. We had a few of those little scares where the contractor wasn’t sure they were going to get a certain material when they needed it, but they've all panned out.â€
The pandemic did, however, prevent a shiny-shovel groundbreaking two years ago, and local, state and federal dignitaries had to wait months before they could gather on a flatbed trailer to celebrate the launch of the project.
The state hopes to have a more traditional dedication of the beltway when it opens, though it hasn’t yet decided who gets to drive it first.
“Will we have a celebration? Absolutely, we will have a celebration,†said Jeni Campana, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation. “What that looks like, we don’t know yet.â€
Work will continue after May 1. Hawkins will have another year to complete everything, including a pair of roundabouts on Saltillo Road at South 27th and South 84th.
That will force stretches of Saltillo to close, Mueting said, but it shouldn’t pose too much of a traffic problem — the new beltway will serve as an easy alternate route.