Hwy. 6 repair scheduled for October

By Lynsi Musselman

Residents who live along or travel Highway 6 in Shackelford County have been anticipating road construction to begin for well over six months.

TxDOT public information officer Tanya Brown reported this week that the long-awaited paving project planned for Highway 6 between Albany and Eastland County will begin this October.

The $12 million project, that includes widening of Battle Creek Bridge, will hopefully be wrapped up by June 2021.

Brown said Helmkamp Construction, the contractor awarded the bid for both the bridge and highway projects is trying to focus on one project at a time.

The bridge project started in March but construction did not actually get underway until this past June.

Brown explained between the preconstruction meeting and the start of the bridge construction in June, the process of identifying what is to be completed to workers actually being on location takes time.

“TxDOT makes a plan, sends it to Austin, gets bids, etc.,” Brown said. “There are a lot of moving parts, and then to get everyone on the same page and dealing with weather can delay projects.”

The current bridge project is adding 10 feet of shoulder to each side of the road, where there is no shoulder currently.

“This will make the road safer than before construction, when the road would narrow at the bridge,” Brown added.

The plan is for the bridge project to be completed before the paving project begins.

“So far TxDOT’s schedule has stayed on track without much to any delays,” Brown reported.

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