The Superior Express -

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 that routing

four-lane traffic over our two-lane highways is not good.

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.

Monday¹s 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.

In the first two days, the heavy southbound truck traffic had destroyed

Highway 5 and it was closed.

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 lie the following from Sarah Kirchhoff.

³I 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 weren¹t the normal grain

trucks that frequent the area.

As she approached Superior, One of the semi-trucks puling a van trailer

decided to pass a farm tractors without checking for oncoming traffic on a

bridge and curve. Sarah said had she not been paying attention to even a

split second a head on collision would have occurred. She was able to take

the ditch, slam on her vehicle¹s 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 not way to go.

Troy Scott said he was outside his business on East Third Street for

about 40 minutes and thought he saw 40 trucks whizz past.

Diane Kile noted the truck going past her farm home east of the Aurora

East elevator was 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.