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NEAR ROCA — A few stray, stunted cornstalks sprouting from the dirt edge of a planned freeway on-ramp serve as one of the last reminders of what was before cranes, rollers, scrapers and bulldozers began sculpting the South Beltway from acres of farmland. 

Southwest of Lincoln, crews have molded mounds of earth into the beginnings of the interchange tying traffic from U.S. 77 to what will be the new Nebraska 2, said Nebraska Department of Transportation construction engineer Curt Mueting, marking the most visible signs of the highway project decades in the making.

Since construction hit full-speed in late April, dump trucks have hauled nearly 2 million cubic yards of dirt as they carve out the 11-mile freeway designed to improve traffic flow in and around Lincoln.

That's enough dirt to fill the state Capitol eight times over, and a laudable feat in the project's first four months, Mueting said.

"We are very pleased with the progress, which is on schedule," said Chris Hawkins, chief operating officer for Hawkins Construction of Omaha, the project's contractor. 

Last week, crews continued work on bridge pilings and the support structures that will hold up a flyway sweeping over U.S. 77 that westbound drivers will take to head south toward Beatrice, said Mueting, who oversees the South Beltway project and other projects in Southeast Nebraska.

Nearby, crews dumped lime to prepare the dirt for the concrete that will become the eastbound lanes, he said. 

Along with the dirt work, Hawkins and its team of subcontractors have finished building half of the 39 box culverts required along the route and put down the equivalent of a mile of pavement. 

"We have done a ton of work," Mueting said, before stopping to acknowledge the work yet to come.

"We've still got 21 bridges to build." 

Bridge building will begin this fall along the bypass linking U.S. 77 to Nebraska 2 near 120th Street, and dump trucks have steadily hauled dirt from the eastern edge of the project to the western edge to help build up the bridge approaches, Mueting said. 

Saturday, project officials closed the existing Saltillo Road that intersects U.S. 77 and shifted traffic to a temporary intersection to the south. That will allow work to begin on a new Saltillo Road interchange. 

The crews working on the South Beltway have cleared the area for the freeway from east to west, extending just past 98th Street, and plans call for paving to start in earnest by the middle of next year. 

Near 98th Street and Saltillo Road, they’re digging down at where the freeway will pass under a bridge to be built for Saltillo Road traffic to cross.

There, excavators perched on banks fill semis rolling down one-way paths built specifically for moving dirt.

"It's just a nonstop round-robin," Mueting said. 

The coronavirus pandemic hasn't slowed work, those involved with the project said. 

Hawkins was the only bidder for the state's largest infrastructure project and pitched a $352 million construction plan the state agreed to after lawmakers in 2019 enacted a new pay-as-you-go option. 

As the state and Hawkins prepared to close on the deal in March, the pandemic scared investors in the municipal bond market on the day Hawkins planned to sell its bonds. 

But a few days later, Hawkins seized on an opportunity as the market rebounded, sold the bonds and shored up its financing, according to Hawkins.

Since then, a few bouts of rain have proven the only hurdles in the early stage work that relies on recycling dirt removed from one stretch of the project to shape another, Mueting said. 

Hawkins and subcontractors Ames Construction of Burnsville, Minnesota; Constructors of Lincoln, ME Collins of Wahoo and Van Kirk of Sutton are currently working at the site, Chris Hawkins said. 

"More will soon come online to join the approximately 200 professionals, 100-plus trucks, and 100-plus pieces of other major equipment on site," he said.

Crews have worked six days a week and occasionally put in hours on Sundays to have the site ready for work to resume full-speed on Mondays.

To this point, Hawkins and its team haven't had to work nights to keep pace with the project, a testament to their efforts, Mueting said.

Chris Hawkins credited the progress thus far to a highly effective partnership between its team, project engineers, subcontractors and the Department of Transportation.

Hawkins and its crews update weekly a rolling three-week outline of project deadlines to keep the South Beltway on schedule, Mueting said. 

Communication and coordination have made manageable the massive scope of the project and proven pivotal to advancing the freeway's construction on an aggressive three-year deadline, the 28-year Department of Transportation employee said. 

"Everybody says it's something Nebraska hasn't seen before, so it takes a lot of good contractors and a lot of good NDOT folks to make it happen," Mueting said.