Officials with the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) will begin contacting landowners whose property will be impacted by a project to improve a section of Highway 47 known as Hopewell Hill. The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission voted last month to move forward with the project, according to Erik Maninga, area engineer with MoDOT’s Northeast District, which includes Warren County. “Our right of way personnel will be shortly contacting the affecting land owners shortly on right of way acquisition,” Maninga said. Approximately 11.5 acres of land will have to be acquired for the project, he said. A project contractor has not been chosen on the project. Maninga said MoDOT “tentatively” has plans to open bids from prospective contractors in February 2014, and construction could get under way by May of that year. The project, estimated at $3.3 million, should be completed by early 2015. The Hopewell Hill section of Highway 47 runs for approximately six-tenths of a mile. Plans call for two sharp S curves to be eliminated, and for 11-foot driving lanes with 4-foot shoulders to be constructed. The current proposal calls for moving a section of the realigned roadway approximately 60 feet west of the original alignment. MoDOT image