Phase II of the Highway 11 expansion project is tentatively set to start at the beginning of November.

Work to expand Highway 11 to four lanes from Cayten Street to Lakeshore Drive is ongoing on the east side of the highway. Before phase II starts, traffic will be shifted to the east side of the highway and work will begin to widen the west side of the road. Phase II cannot begin until all of the drainage work, concrete work, base work and asphalt is completed on the east side of the highway, said MDOT Engineer Dexter Childs.

Barriere Construction has a $14.4 million contract to widen Highway 11 to four lanes and the expansion is projected to take three years to complete. A second phase of the overall project is planned, which will include replacing the bridge over the East Hobolochitto Creek. That work will be under a separate contract.

The rainy weather in June made for a slow month of work, said Childs, but the contractor was still able to start on sidewalks and concrete driveways south of Highway 43. In late June and early July sidewalks were laid from Cayten Street to East Sycamore Road.

Base work south of Highway 43 has also been completed on the east side of Highway 11 and some base work has been finished north of Highland Community Hospital.

The contractor has begun the drainage runon between Highway 43 and Highland Community Hospital and continued drainage work from the area of the hospital to Lakeshore Drive.

Next week, a subcontractor is scheduled to begin boring for lighting assemblies on the east side of Highway 11, said Childs. The lighting assemblies will be for streetlights.