TAMING THE ‘TECUMSEH CURVES’: MoDOT contract to improve dangerous stretch of Highway 160 should be completed this fall


The new pathway of Highway 160 will stretch north of its current location beginning halfway down the hill west of the Tecumseh access at Norfork Lake. The result will eliminate these two reverse curves, allowing a gentler bend in the roadway.  Times photo/Jessi Dreckman

During construction, 13 buildings, including this former restaurant, an adjoining patio and a nearby house and structure at the bottom of the Tecumseh curves, will be demolished so that the new roadway can be built. The others to be removed include two structures halfway up the hill and seven more near the top at the east end of Rocky Top Campground, including five rock-faced cabins. The resort continues normal operations. Times photos/Jessi Dreckman

Missouri Department of Transportation has set these boundary markers and pink flags along the Tecumseh curves project’s outer boundary, which adjoins Rocky Top Campground and other landowners’ property. The state has purchased about 14 acres to make the realignment project possible.  Times photo/Jessi Dreckman

Few sections of Ozark County roadway are as infamous, and perilous, as the quarter-mile stretch of Highway 160 west of Norfork Lake known simply to locals as the “Tecumseh curves.”

Located about 9 miles east of Gainesville, Highway 160 descends a hillside at that point, leading drivers through more than half a dozen tight twists and turns in a section of roadway that has been the setting for several serious (sometimes fatal) crashes, semi-truck turnovers and other dangerous incidents.

The roadway snakes down the hill with no guardrails and no shoulder. On one side of the pavement, drivers face a several-hundred-foot drop into a wooded ravine while the other side is lined with a steep and rocky ditch-line, leaving very little room for driving mistakes. 

Those not acquainted with the area sometimes approach the treacherous roadway without realizing the danger, zipping into the curves too fast before they realize what lies ahead.

The good news is, before the year is up, the Tecumseh curves will undergo a $3.4 million realignment project that will redevelop the roadway, making it straighter and safer for motorists. 

 

Contract awarded

At its monthly meeting on Feb. 3, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission awarded Van Buren-based H.R. Quadri Contractors a $3,491,712 contract to undertake the Ozark County project, which will redirect Highway 160 through a straighter path, widen the roadway and provide improved guardrails. 

H.R. Quadri Contractors was awarded two other contracts at the meeting, including a $1.8 million project for shoulder improvements in Texas and Howell counties and a $1.2 million contract for roadway improvements in Butler County. 

 

To be completed this fall

Missouri Department of Transportation project manager Pete Berry told the Times that work on the Tecumseh curves will begin March 1 and should be completed this fall.

During construction, traffic will be permitted to pass through the area, although there may be some delays. 

“We set up enough widening in an attempt to carry two lanes of traffic as construction activities will allow, but there may be frequent times when traffic is reduced to one lane by using a flagging operation,” Berry said. “There will also be short-term, full-road closures periodically that may last up to a half hour to allow for rock blasting and clearing rock debris from the roadway.”

Berry said anytime Highway 160 will be closed completely, MoDOT will announce the closure publicly.

The highway is likely to see heavier than normal traffic when the Tecumseh access on Norfork Lake, at the bottom of the Tecumseh curves, is reopened. 

The access, managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, is currently undergoing a $1 million rebuilding project of the flood-damaged area to include a parking lot, boat ramp and separate canoe/kayak access. That project is set to be completed this spring. 

With a few exceptions, it has been closed to all but walk-in traffic since sustaining devastating damage in an historic 2017 flood. 

Traditionally, the access is especially popular when white bass are "running" in early spring. 

 

 Making way for the highway

During the construction process, 13 uninhabited structures will be demolished to make way for the new roadway path.

“All four structures at the bottom of the hill will be removed to make room for the Route 160 widening,” Berry said. “Halfway up the hill there are two structures planned for removal. At the top of the hill at the [Rocky Top] campground, there are seven structures planned for removal, five of which are the rock cabins.”

The rock cabins Berry references caused an initial delay in the project, which was originally slated to be completed last summer. The historical significance of the five Rocky Top cabins was questioned several months into the process, temporarily halting the work. The State Historic Preservation Office investigated the matter and ruled in spring 2020 that the five rock-faced cabins were not of historical or cultural significance and could be removed. 

The project was back on after receiving the determination, but the planning, bidding window and other administrative processes involved with a large-scale highway project pushed back the timeline a little over a year. 

 

Separate, but connected, project 

Berry confirmed that on March 19 MoDOT will receive bids for a separate highway project that overlays and widens the pavement of Highway 160, providing an additional two-foot shoulder on each side of the roadway. 

“This project begins at Route 101 and extends west to the Route 5 intersection just west of Gainesville," he said. “The Tecumseh hill project falls within the limits of this separate project.”

The submitted bids will be reviewed by the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission at the April 7 meeting, which will decide whether to award the contract to the lowest bidder.

Ozark County Times

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PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
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