Nebraska officials are celebrating the ongoing construction of Lincoln’s South Beltway, a project that, when completed, is expected to improve interstate travel through Nebraska and reduce conflicts between local and through traffic.
At a celebration event Thursday, Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird joined Governor Pete Ricketts, Senator Deb Fischer, Congressman Jeff Fortenberry and other officials in applauding the decades of work that brought the project to where it is now.
“This project spans the terms of ten Nebraska governors, eleven Lincoln mayors and thirteen DOT directors, so we know we walk on the shoulders of giants here,” said Baird.
The $352 million project is one of the largest and most complex the Nebraska Department of Transportation has undertaken. COO of Hawkins Construction, Chris Hawkins, recalled the many late nights it took to get the project moving.
“This deal almost died at least four times,” said Hawkins. “In the five decades that it's taken to put this thing together, I’d like to give special appreciation to my liver, which sacrificed about as much as anything else.”
The Beltway, after being in various stages of development for decades, is slated to be complete by 2023.