County Public Works director Keith Browning told Douglas County commissioners at their Wednesday meeting that County Route 458 didn’t close Tuesday with the start of construction on a 4.5-mile section of the road as anticipated.

Contractor King’s Construction, of Oskaloosa, started working on parts of the project other than the culvert replacement that will necessitate the closing of CR 458 west of US Highway 59 to through traffic, Browning said. That culvert replacement, which is expected to take about four months, now is expected to start next week, he said.

That means those wanting to use CR 458 to access fishing or camping sites on the western side of Clinton Lake would probably find it open this weekend. Browning said, however, those using the road would do well to check for updated information on its closing and other project details at the Facebook page for the project.

The section of CR 458 to be improved in the $6.6 million project stretches from East 800 Road north of Lone Star east and north to near its junction with North 1150 Road.

Commissioners also authorized public works to seek up to $40,000 in Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism grant money to repair the fishing platform below the Lone Star Lake community building. Browning said should the money from the competitive grant be awarded to the county, it would be used to repair about 50 feet of the western portion of the fishing platform that is slipping into the lake. It is estimated the effort to repair and stabilize the platform will cost about $100,000, he said.

Public works looked into adding an ADA-accessible kayak launching ramp to the platform with the repair work but found that to be too expensive because of the steep grade from the community building parking lot to the lake, Browning said. Staff is now exploring adding such a facility at an unused ramp across the cove, he said.