Pave the Way to Improve Carter County Roads

Poplar Bluff, Missouri – Schultz Surveying and Engineering, Inc. (SSE) was chosen by Carter County to design road paving improvements to County Road (CR) K-259.  The work included designing the roadway, grading, drainage, and paving.  SSE owner Stan Schultz said, “We have helped several counties obtain funding to pave busy county roads and were very excited to be able to help Carter County improve this highly traveled road.  The better grading and drainage along with the new pavement will greatly improve the safety for residents.” 

Back in 2010 SSE Project manager Marvin Nesbit started working to secure funding from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to pave CR K-259.  Carter County had never received any funds for roadwork and most observers thought none would be available.  The application came back approved and everyone was pleasantly surprised when $325,000 was committed to the project.  Marvin added, “Obtaining funding to improve this county road was not easy but it was well worth the effort. Thanks to the CDBG funding, Carter County was able to provide a local match of culverts, grading and labor, which provided the necessary funds to pave all two miles of K-259.”

A floodplain presented an environmental issue that slowed the process down but once all those issues were addressed Pace Construction was awarded the paving contract, which required laying 3 inches of asphalt on a 20 foot roadbed.  They used 3,700 tons of new asphalt on the 2 miles of road surface. 

Nearly 6,500 people call Carter County home and many of them commute to Poplar Bluff for work.  CR K-259 is one of the highly traveled interconnects residents use to go from Highway K to Highway 60. Easter District Commissioner Eddie Ballard mentioned, “It’s been costing us more and more to keep K-259 maintained and in a safe driving condition.  The new pavement will be a big help to all those who use the road on a daily bases.” 

Besides dealing with the floodplain issue there were two low water crossings and numerous culverts that were installed.  “This was one of the simpler road projects I have worked on but helping rural counties track down funding and improve safety on their roads is very important to our company.  Carter County had hundreds of people traveling K-259 each day and this new road will lower maintenance costs and improve safety,” said Nesbit.

Commissioner Ballard concluded by saying, “We couldn’t have gotten this project funded and built without Marvin and the engineers at SSE. It’s so wonderful to have this road paved, making commuting to work better for our citizens and this will also save our county many dollars in maintenance expenses over the coming years.”

Schultz Surveying and Engineering is a Missouri based Civil Engineering Company with offices in Poplar Bluff, Branson, Lake Ozark and Doniphan. They have provided drinking water and wastewater design services to over 58 communities in Missouri.  To date, they have helped those communities obtain over $124,000,000 in public funding.  They have helped design roads for cities, counties and MoDOT including Hwys. 67, 60, and 13 to name just a few.  They have several large state of the art USACE validated testing labs and are one of the select companies that have been approved for a Blanket Purchase Agreement with the USACE.  They have also provided surveying services to a variety of clients from utilities, MoDOT, USACE, cities, corporations, small business, and individuals. SSE is a HubZone certified company and can be found at www.schultzengineering.com