Officials with the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) have settled on a finalized design of the project to improve Highway 47 at Hopewell Hill. The proposal will be submitted for approval to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission. The commission is expected to vote on the plan at its April 2 meeting. Chris Knapp, MoDOT’s project manager, said right of way acquisition should begin this summer. “We hope to open bids in February for our general contractor and have the work be under way by late spring or early summer,” Knapp said. He said work on the $3.3 million project should be completed before the end of 2014. The area of Highway 47 known as Hopewell Hill runs for approximately 6-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. After originally presenting plans to improve the roadway to area residents during a public meeting last October, MoDOT studied feedback and input given by people both during the meeting as well as comments that were submitted online. Knapp and Erik Maninga, MoDOT’s area engineer for the Northeast District which includes Warren County, met last month with concerned stakeholders such as the Warren County Commission and residents of Coventry and Aspenhof subdivisions.Knapp said the feed back was mostly positive in terms of what MoDOT is proposing.“Residents of Coventry subdivision liked the changes we made,” Knapp said, noting that little negative feedback to the revised plan was expressed. The current plan is slightly different from a similar option presented in October, Knapp noted. The current proposal calls for moving a section of the realigned roadway approximately 60 feet west of the original alignment. The result, Knapp said, is the impact on residents of Coventry subdivision will be lessened.Additional rock will have to be removed along the new route, which will result in a slightly higher cost for the project, he noted. The original plan was estimated at $3.2 million.