The project is nearly 20 years past its due date, with the original deadline being 2003. One-third of the project is undone, and there is no timeline for many of the remaining sections. This means it could be decades before the project is finished.

The next part of Highway 275 to be completed will be the section between Scribner and West Point, which opens for bids later in the spring, said Jeni Campana, acting communication public policy director at the Nebraska Department of Transportation.

“We’re glad to know the Scribner to West Point portion may come to bid this spring,” Moenning said. “We’ve been down this road.”

Construction was supposed to start on this section in 2018, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers required the NDOT to conduct an environmental study on the area, delaying work.

Work may go ahead now that the study is completed.

Ideally work would begin in the fall, but it’s still unknown how long it would take to finish, Campana said.

“I don’t want to speculate,” she said. “We don’t have set dates yet.”

Many of the other unfinished sections are now under design, Campana said, and the rest are in planning.

Moenning and the other mayors identified funding as the main reason behind the lack of progress on Highway 275 in their letter.