ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The following is a listing of general highway maintenance and construction work in the Northwest Missouri region planned for the week of Nov. 28 – Dec. 4 from the Missouri Department of Transportation. In addition to the work listed below, there may be pothole patching, bridge maintenance, striping, brush cutting, guardrail repairs and other road work conducted throughout the region. Many of these will be moving operations and could include lane closures with delays.

 

Andrew County

• Route 48 – CLOSED at the Platte River Bridge near Whitesville for a bridge replacement project. The road will be closed through November.

Atchison County

• Interstate 29 – Pavement repair, Nov. 28 – Dec. 2

Buchanan County

• U.S. Route 36 – Eastbound under the Route AC overpass for pavement repair, Nov. 28. This includes a 12-foot width restriction.
• U.S. Route 36 – Flushing bridges, Nov. 28 – Dec. 2
• Route 116 – From Route 371 to I-29 for guardrail repair, Nov. 28 – Dec. 2
• Route HH – From 56^th Road to Route 116 for drainage work, Nov. 28 – Dec. 2
• U.S. Route 36 – One mile east of Route AC for a bridge project, Nov. 28 – Dec. 4

Caldwell County

• Route P – CLOSED at the intersection of Route P and Old Highway 36 for a culvert replacement, Nov. 28, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Chariton County

• Route 139 – From the Chariton County line to the city limits of Sumner for shoulder work, Nov. 29
• Route KK – CLOSED from U.S. Route 24 to Route VV for a culvert replacement, Nov. 29, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Route F – CLOSED from U.S. Route 24 to Ordway Road for a culvert replacement, Nov. 30, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Clinton County

• Route 33 – From Isley Road to SE Valley View Road for drainage work, Nov. 28 – Dec. 2

DeKalb County

• Route C – From U.S. Route 36 to Route 6 for milling and pothole patching, Nov. 28 – Dec. 2
• Route 6 – From one-half mile west of Route J to McCartney Road for milling and pothole patching, Nov. 29 – 30
• Route A – From south of Fairport to Maysville for shoulder work, Dec. 1 – 2

Gentry County

• U.S. Route 169 – From just north of King City to Route M for shoulder work, Nov. 28 – 30

Grundy County

• Route 190 – From Route 146 to the Daviess County line for shoulder work, Nov. 29 – 30

Harrison County

• Route B – From Route N to U.S. Route 136 for shoulder work, Nov. 28 – 30
• Route 13 – CLOSED at the Pole Cat Creek Bridge for maintenance, Nov. 28, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• Route 13 – At the Pole Cat Creek Bridge for maintenance, Nov. 29 – Dec. 2

Holt County

• Route 111 – From the city limits of Forest City to the city limits of Oregon for shoulder repairs, Nov. 28 – 29
• I-29 – Pavement repair, Nov. 28 – Dec. 2
• U.S. Route 59 – From the north Oregon exit (Exit 76) to the south Oregon exit (Exit 67) for pothole patching, Nov. 29 – Dec. 2

Linn County

• Route 139 – From U.S. Route 36 to the Chariton County line for shoulder work, Nov. 28
• U.S. Route 36 – Westbound from Route 130 to Higgins Ditch Bridge for pavement repair, Nov. 28 – 29
• Route EE – Pothole patching, Nov. 28 – 29
• Route W – Pothole patching, Nov. 30
• U.S. Route 36 – Westbound from Route 5 to Route F for pavement repair, Nov. 30 – Dec. 2

Livingston County

• Route D – Pothole patching, Dec. 1 – 2

Nodaway County

• U.S. Route 71 – From 340^th Street to Route B (Andrew County) for pothole patching, Nov. 28 – Dec. 2
• Route C – Two miles west of Clearmont at the Nodaway River Bridge for a stream bank stabilization project, Nov. 28 – Dec. 2
• Route 246 – From Route 46 (Worth County) to Route E for pothole patching, Nov. 30 – Dec. 2
• Route H – From Route A to 375^th Street for a slide repair, Nov. 30 – Dec. 1
• Route U – From the One Hundred and Two River Bridge to Katydid Road for drainage work, Dec. 1 – 2

Putnam County

• Route K – CLOSED from 210^th Street to Route EE for a culvert replacement, Nov. 28, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Route E – CLOSED from Route 139 to 175^th Road for a culvert replacement, Nov. 29, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Route E – CLOSED from 175^th Road to 190^th Road for a culvert replacement, Nov. 30, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Worth County

• Route 46 – From Route W to Route 246 for pothole patching, Nov. 29
• Route 246 – From Route 46 to Route E (Nodaway County) for pothole patching, Nov. 30 – Dec. 2

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has announced it plans to hold special enforcement operations next month in Livingston and Nodaway counties.

Sometime during the month of December a sobriety checkpoint with be held in Livingston County and a DWI saturation in Nodaway County.

Capt. James E. McDonald, commanding officer of Troop H said the areas selected for enforcement are based on a high number of drinking-related crashes, high number of contacts with drivers who have been drinking, and officers’ input as to probable contact with DWI violators.

“The Missouri State Highway Patrol is dedicated to removing impaired drivers from Missouri roadways,” McDonald said. “Anytime your plans include alcohol, please have a sober designated driver.”

(Missourinet) – Missouri drivers won’t encounter manned construction zones over the extended Thanksgiving weekend.

Between Wednesday afternoon and Monday morning, there’ll be no crews on site at any road project in the state. Linda Wilson-Horne with the Missouri Transportation Department says there will still be spots where lane closures remain in place. “We do have some projects that have a more permanent condition” said Wilson-Horne. “We have a lane blocked off that is blocked off all the time that cannot be reopened, but workers will not be out there.”

MoDOT maintenance and construction crews stopped work at various times during Wednesday afternoon, and won’t return until Monday morning. The schedule is negotiated into the contract of union workers who are employed at the state agency. Emergency workers will remain on-call for unexpected occurrences such as debris in the roadway.

Wilson-Horne says despite the absence of maintenance and construction crews over the four-day weekend, there’ll still be reduced speed zones because of hazardous conditions. “You might have ten-foot lanes instead of 12, or a tight barrier wall that you’re driving alongside. So the speed is actually reduced for your safety, not for the workers’ safety.”

The lane closures which will remain in place are at major projects, especially in urban areas. “In downtown Kansas City they’ve got some projects going on on I-70” said Wilson-Horne. “As well, in St. Louis there’s projects on I-70 in St. Charles County as well as near the airport.”

Wilson-Horne says drivers should always obey whatever speed is posted on a black and white state regulated sign. She says speeding through work zones is a constant problem for MoDOT.

Congestion will also be an issue on Sunday following Thanksgiving, notably on I-70. Last year between 3-and-9 p.m., traffic slowed to 35 miles-per-hour between Columbia and Wentzville, a drastic reduction from the posted speed-limit of 70 miles-per-hour.

Wilson-Horne notes traffic patterns tend to depart from normal schedules over holiday weekends. “Fortunately our work zones won’t be active and impeding your way.”

All of the Noyes Home children currently on the K-JO Toy Hookup list have been checked off as of Friday morning.

Gregg Lynn is the program director for K-JO 105.5 and said all specific lists for the toy drive have been fulfilled.

“We’re not anywhere near done,” Lynn said. “We’ve got thousands of kids we still need to take care of through Adopt-A-Family.  So we’re asking now for any new unwrapped toy. If you think a kid would want to play with it we want it and cash donations.”

Lynn said he fully expects to see more children come in to the Noyes Home before the annual Christmas Party Dec. 14th and they want to be able to provide those children with gifts as well.

“We’re going to want to buy them presents too.  We don’t want to have a Christmas Party and no presents.  So if we can do cash donations right now as new kids come in we can make sure to buy them gifts too,” Lynn said.

As of Friday morning 32 children were taken care of for Christmas at the Noyes Home.

“I think almost every fire house has purchased everything for at least one kid if not one per shift,” Lynn said. “Some listeners have taken on lots and lots of kids.”

Lynn said additional donations will be given to the AFL-CIO’s Adopt-A-Family program to benefit other children in need in the community.

Anyone interested in donating toys to the 14th annual K-JO Toy Drive can do so until 5 p.m. Friday at the KKJO Studio located at 4104 Country Lane or at Olive Garden, this year’s sponsor of the drive.

(Updated) – The St. Joseph Police Department worked multiple car crashes within an hour Friday morning.

Shortly before 9 a.m. authorities responded to the 4100 block of King Hill Ave. after a car hit a pole knocking an electrical line down.

Sgt. Kevin Cummings said the crash knocked out the signal lights at the intersection of King Hill and Lake Ave.  Officer Matt Kneib said the driver of the vehicle refused medical treatment at the scene but later called for an ambulance for treatment related to the crash after arriving home.

The crash knocked out power in the area; KCP&L’s power outage map as of noon showed fewer than five customers were still impacted by an outage that began around 8:50 a.m. on King Hill Ave.  Kneib said KCP&L will have to replaced the pole completely.

While crews were working that crash a second crash took place in the 3600 block of King Hill Ave.

 

Sgt. Cummings said a man rear ended another vehicle.  Cummings said according to the crash report, the man reported that he rear ended someone and that the other driver took off.  The caller sustained a minor head injury.  Refused treatment at the scene. Police are still investigating the crash.

A third crash took place not long after that around 9:52 a.m. in the 2700 block of Messanie.

“She was going east, he was going west.  She had a seizure and obviously lost control of her vehicle and crashed into him,”said Officer Leroy Barnes.

Both the woman driving the Black SUV and the man driving the red SUV were checked out by EMS on scene but no one was transported to the hospital.  No tickets were issued.

Cummings said he does not believe the crashes have a link to Black Friday shopping because none of them took place on the Belt highway.

 

Times have changed for shoppers seeking Black Friday bargains. With many retailers changing their hours, and some opening on Thanksgiving Day, the long lines we used to see before stores open are largely gone. We ran into one group of folks waiting for the Sears store to open at East Hills, and for the most part, they had tools on their minds.

“We’ve got to get the deal of the century,” said one man, who was out in search of a toolbox. Another said he was looking for some metric tools, and a third said he was out in search of a dremel, a tool used for grinding and engraving.

All three appeared to be shopping for themselves for Christmas.

J.C. Penney was open by the time we checked at 4:30 a.m. Walmart and KMart locations in St. Joseph were already open.  We didn’t see any long lines outside retailers early Friday morning.

By mid-morning on Black Friday, the parking lot at the East Hills Shopping Center was packed.

Firefighters are going into day three at the scene of the Pioneer building in downtown St. Joseph and expect to be there over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Crews with the St. Joseph Fire Department arrived on scene at Francis and 5th Streets Monday shortly after 10:30 a.m. Even after the flames shooting up into the air died down firefighters have remained on scene continuously battling hot spots and pouring water on the smoldering rubble.

“Day three is pretty much a repeat of day two,” said Chief Training Officer Mike Neylon with the St. Joseph Fire Department. “We still have two trucks down there spraying hot spots as much as they can.”

He said they have taken down part of a wall that was preventing power officials from restoring power to the area but as of 11 a.m. Wednesday the success of restoring power had not yet been seen. Neylon said the building will continue to smolder for days if not weeks.

“We are not going to go into the building until the structure is safe for people to go in there and that’s up to engineers. That stubborn wall still appears to be ready to collapse but as of yet it’s hanging tough,” Neylon said.

Neylon said until crews can get into the building to investigate the fire, a cause cannot be determined.

“We will not know until we investigate it as much as we can and that’s going to require heavy equipment and other equipment that has to get in there to look around, sniff around and see what we can find. There’s no way of knowing what’s under those bricks it’s speculation and we can’t deal with speculation,” Neylon said.

Crews will be manning the fire in downtown St. Joseph over Thanksgiving.

“We’ll have a regular crew, 33 people on duty.  And of course the rest of us will be on call as usual,” Neylon said.  “To fire, police, public works, and God bless them the dispatchers in the Communication Center it’s just another day.”

When the St. Joseph Post asked him if there was anything the public could do to make their holiday a little better Neylon joked that cookies and pie are always nice.

“I’ve seen people bring a cake or two to the nearest fire house.  That’s never a bad thing.” Neylon said. “We’re pretty well known for our affinity for pastries.”

 

A man was allegedly assaulted Tuesday while working on a duplex in midtown.

Capt. Jeff Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Department said officers responded to the 2500 block of Olive shortly before 10:30 p.m. in reference to a burglary.

Wilson said a 45-year-old man claimed he was doing some maintenance on the duplex and confronted several people who he felt may be entering the building illegally.

“During the course of this he was struck in the head with an unknown object,” Wilson said. “He stated it could have been a pipe wrench or hammer.”

The suspects allegedly fled the area. The man sustained a laceration to the head and was transported to Mosaic Life Care where he was treated and released.

Wilson said detectives have several persons of interest in the case. The investigation continues.

(Missourinet) – You’ll see extra Missouri state troopers Wednesday and Sunday on most interstates.

The State Highway Patrol’s 2016 Thanksgiving holiday enforcement period begins Wednesday evening at 6 and ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday. Missouri Highway Patrol Captain John Hotz says that during the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday weekend, 13 people were killed and another 627 were injured in 1,817 traffic crashes.

“So roughly, a person was killed or injured every 9.6 minutes in Missouri over last year’s Thanksgiving holiday weekend,” says Hotz.

Captain Hotz tells Missourinet that state troopers are being assigned to 20-mile intervals Wednesday (November 23) and Sunday along Interstates 29, 35, 44, 55 and 70, as well as Highways 60 and 63. It’s part of Operation C.A.R.E., which stands for Combined Accident Reduction Effort.

Troopers are enforcing all traffic laws and are assisting motorists as needed.

“We’ll be very close if somebody does have trouble out there on the roadway, we’ll have troopers who are very close who can get to them very quickly and get them on their way in a safe manner,” Hotz says.

The Missouri Highway Patrol’s emergency assistance number is 1-800-525-5555. Hotz encourages motorists to call *55 on their cell phone to report traffic crashes, crimes being committed or other emergencies. When you dial that number anywhere in the state, it rings directly into the closest Patrol headquarters.