Omaha 168th Street project sees steady progress

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - A busy road in southwest Omaha has been closed to traffic for just over a year, but construction officials say the project is on schedule.

Construction crews ripped out 168th Street between Pacific and West Center in April 2021.

They are turning it into a four-lane road - a major improvement here.

According to Austin Rowser with the City of Omaha, despite a minor utility delay early on, progress has been steady.

“We are currently on track to get that open by early summer, you know, open to two-way traffic in both directions,” Rowser said.

The construction should be completely wrapped up in late summer to early fall. While having four lanes will result in increased traffic flow, it’s not the only benefit coming from this project.

“We always had some drainage problems down there. Down in the bottom we’ve got some large retaining walls and some new drainage structures that are really going to facilitate that and make sure we don’t have those problems in the future.”

This is also not the only project on the schedule in this part of the city.

Rowser says that the combination of federal money and funds available after voters passed bonds recently will lead to improvements on other roads, such as 156th and 180th starting next year.

That 156th Street project is south of Dodge to Pacific. It’s a continuation of that bigger project north of Dodge just a few years ago.

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