Highway 61 between Enders, Benkelman reopens Monday

    Nebraska Highway 61, between Benkelman and Enders, had been closed since Friday, May 26, due to flooding but was reopened Monday, according to Kurt Vosburg, District 7 Engineer with the Department of Transportation.
    Higher than normal rainfall received in the area caused the flooding.
    “On Sunday we completed the road shoulder repairs and the clean up of mud and debris,” Vosburg said.
    “We are continuing to purge water out of where it is cleared to give cushion in the event there is another hard rainfall in the near future,” he added.
    Highway 61 at Road 719 is in a low area that has been under water that is not receding, Vosburg said, and crews have had pumps working on the accumulation since May 30.  
    “The water had nowhere to run so it has been diverted into a field that can absorb it,” he said.
    Other roads closed in the area in the last week and a half have also been reopened.
Road projects continue
    Despite being closed further south on Highway 61, work continued on a paving and bridge repair project on the highway that starts at the Hwys. 6/61 turnoff at Enders.
    Taylor Wendt, DOT project manager, said all of the paving is done on the 3.7-mile section of highway, but other work continues.
    Half of the road over the dam is shut down for repairs, he said. Once those are done, workers will put down an epoxy overlay.
    Along the paved sections, other workers are now completing shoulder work.
    “The depth of the road was raised so it requires building up the shoulders,” he said.
    Seeding of the shoulder areas will follow, as well as other erosion control measures.
    He expects work on the Enders project to conclude the end of June to the end of July, weather-permitting and considering contractor schedules.
    Wendt is also overseeing the  Palisade paving project that starts at the Highway 25 intersection, continuing for 7 miles east.
    Paving started Tuesday, he said, with a pilot car running while that work is completed. He expects that paving to be finished in early July.