By Rupert Howell

Two loops of the I-55 intersection with 278 (Highway 6) will be removed being replaced by existing exit ramps with two signals on Highway 6 MDOT District Engineer Richard Allen told Batesville’s board of mayor and aldermen at Tuesday’s meeting.

Allen noted that lengthening acceleration and deceleration lanes had already begun.

Allen was invited to the board meeting to bring city officials up to date on current construction plans at the interchange that has remained virtually unchanged since originally constructed in the mid-1960s.

Proposed changes were originally part of the Batesville bypass project whose construction date continues to be set back.

Allen explained that the southwest and northwest loops (loops on the west side of I-55) would be removed. Signals would direct traffic from the existing exit ramps on to Highway 6 towards Oxford or Batesville.

The district engineer also confirmed that the Wal-Mart intersection on Highway 6 East would require new signals, similar to new signals elsewhere in Batesville on Highway 6 and also high-mast lighting to light the entire intersection.

The city is required to enter an operations and maintenance agreement with lighting once installed according to Allen who said work should begin in earnest in early spring of 2013 but noted, “Sometimes moving utilities (such as city gas, water,  sewer etc.)—sometimes those dates become unpredictable.”

Allen later predicted the construction project to take one to a year-and-a-half years.