PAVING GANG STARTS WORK

Clarke County will soon have at least part of the paving promised it by the county bond issue. The construction company receiving the contract for paving from Osceola north to the county line will start building the sub-grade, weather permitting.

A crew of men have been at work five miles north of Osceola building a railroad siding and a camp for the men who will come when the paving starts. The superintendent of the work said that the company would need about forty men when paving starts.

With good weather the company will start laying cement in two weeks. The company would only use one mixer and the road construction would probably last all season.

The first detour will be north east out of Osceola on mail route No. 4, swinging north to meet U.S. 65 five miles north of town at the construction camp. The other detours will be arranged as the paving advanced.

Other work of the Highway Commission includes the building of the subway under the Burlington tracks on the Harding Highway two miles east of Osceola. (The highway today is referred to as Highway 34 East and has had several names, Blue Grass Highway, and Harding Highway named after President Harding) The drainage for the subway is being put in and the railroad company has been driving piles for the temporary bridge while the subway is being built. Work will advance rapidly on the project. (Vehicles entered the subway on a curve)

The new Highway Commission building built in Osceola will be erected along the Harding Highway just across from the Osceola cemetery and just west of Ralph’s shop, between the highway and the railroad tracks (location today of Clarke County Tire, 803 W. McLane) The building will be 90 feet long and built of hollow tile. The contract for it is expected to be let soon, either at Ames or Chariton and work started on it. When completed it will be used to house machinery to be used in work on the state highways. - March 1928