Community promoters sometimes wish Superior was located on a four-lane highway like Aurora or Belleville.
To be on a four-lane might be okay but this week most agree routing four-lane traffic over our two-lane highways is not good.
Last Monday the Nebraska Department of Transportation closed the south bound lanes of U.S. Highway 81 north of Hebron to allow for the emergency repair of a failing culvert.
The original designated detour route was west on Highway 4 to the intersection with Highway 5, then south to Deshler and back to Highway 81 via U.S. Highway 136 at Deshler. We reported that route in the last issue of this newspaper. However, before the newspaper was delivered the route had changed.
In the first two days of use, the heavy southbound truck traffic had destroyed Highway 5 and it was closed to through traffic and repairs begun.
The state roads department moved the detour west to Highway 14, south to Superior and east to Chester via Highway 8.
The result has not been desirable.
We are hearing too many stories like the following from Sarah Kirchhoff.
"I am shaking, crying and sitting in my car trying to process what just happened."
On the way from her farm home to work at her office in Superior via Highway 8, she met an estimated 35 trucks that weren't the normal grain trucks that frequent the area.
As she approached Superior, the driver of a semi-truck pulling a van trailer decided to pass a farm tractor apparently without checking for oncoming traffic on a bridge and curve.
Sarah said had she not been paying attention for even a split second, a head on collision would have occurred. She was able to take the ditch, slam on her vehicle's brakes and get out of the way. However, her vehicle went down into the ditch. Had it happened a couple of seconds later, she would have been on the bridge with no way to escape.
Troy Scott said he was outside his business on East Third Street for about 40 minutes and thought he saw 40 trucks whiz past.
Diane Kile noted the trucks going past her farm home near the Aurora Cooperative's Superior East elevator were speeding and passing like there was no tomorrow.
The designated detour utilizes the truck route around the east side of Superior but some of the trucks are continuing to the Third and Bloom intersection and failing to stop before turning left onto Highway 8.
The volume of southbound traffic on the truck route is also making the Third and Hartley Street intersection one to be cautious of.
If the Highway 81 repair is completed on time, the roads department expected to reopen the southbound lanes at 6 p.m. yesterday (Wednesday)
The Express received a shipment of 6,500 pounds of paper about 7 a.m. Monday morning. The delivery driver thought he knew the way to Superior and was sailing right along when he encountered the detour. On previous trips, he had taken 81 to Chester and then west via Highway 8 to Superior. He planned to do the same Monday.
Unsure of what to do when he saw the road closed signs, he contacted his supervisor. Apparently the supervisor is not well acquainted with the area and the recent muddy condition of our roads. He suggested an alternative route that included county roads surfaced with gravel. We understand several drivers have tried such shortcuts with less that stellar results. Fortunately the paper truck driver ignored the instructions from the boss and followed the marked detour which brought him to Superior by about 7:15.
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