Completion of the roundabout in Fulton will be delayed, a state highway official said Tuesday.
Chuck Sullivan, MoDOT resident engineer, said he is negotiating with the general contractor, Sam Gaines Construction Co. of New Bloomfield, for a delay on completion of the project.
Sullivan said the goal still is to open traffic over the roundabout 42 days after all traffic is closed around the roundabout, which would be sometime in December.
But Sullivan said an extension on the project may be granted because utility work delayed demolition of the bridges.
"When the general contractor on the project started the job AT&T still had not yet removed its telephone lines and the contractor could not demolish the bridge because there were still functioning telephone lines on the bridge," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said Ameren still had electrical utilities on the bridge. "Because of specifications in our contract, we are going to extend the completion date because of the delay caused by utilities. The contractor and I are still negotiating on a timetable on the delay," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the roundabout contract provides that "after the contractor starts Stage 2 of the job, he has 42 days to get traffic on it, which will be sometime in December."
Sullivan said as of Tuesday the projected is estimated to be 86 percent complete. "The contractor is probably ahead of schedule. We are working with the contractor on his schedule so we can get traffic as soon as possible on the roundabout," Sullivan said.
"He will have an extension to complete the job. This includes the roadway, retaining wall, sidewalk as well as grading, seeding and final striping," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said Gaines Construction "has never been ahead of schedule on the project. He has been very close to catching up with the schedule. He is still behind on completing by Dec. 15 but the weather has been really good lately. His time frame has gone from four or five weeks down to probably two weeks."