Traffic Fun Is Less Than A Week Away For Key Hannibal Intersection

If you've lived in this area for any period of time, surely at some point you've had the "joy" of going through the intersection where Highway 61/McMasters meets West Ely Road and Pleasant Street.  It really becomes a party when you cross this area between 4p and 5p on a Friday afternoon.  Well, put on your seat belts (it is the law after all), cause next week will begin all kinds of fun when MODOT begins improvements.  Road construction begins Monday, July 16th.

Here's how the MODOT website describes it:

US 61 Hannibal – Intersection improvements at West Ely Rd. and Pleasant St. in Hannibal
Work Zone Info: Start date July 16 . Narrow one lane traffic, 35 mph through work zone area - nighttime work hours from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday evening through Friday morning.

Project Status: 0% complete - Scheduled to begin on July 16.

Estimated Completion: October 15, 2012

From what I understand (which admittedly isn't much), they're widening the intersection.  Wide is good.  But, I feel that I have a public responsibility to prepare you for what going through that intersection is gonna be like starting next Monday until October 15th.  After much thought, here's my best guess.

Unless you like playing the board game MouseTrap with your car, you will want to avoid the work at West Ely/McMasters/Pleasant.  I suspect many will start using Veteran's Road, but I guess that depends on where you're going.  It's a hard intersection to avoid since it's kind of in the middle of pretty much everything.

If you find a easy way of getting around the temporary mess, let us know and we'll update this as the construction continues.