Construction at the intersection of Musick Road and Gravois Road originally slated to be completed by the end of 2018 will now be finished by May, after the timeline was extended when workers found an AT&T cable buried along Gravois.

The cable was found well into construction, said David Wrone, spokesman for St. Louis County’s Department of Transportation. The cable affected the original design plans and had to be dug up and relocated, and plans had to be redrawn.

“We know this has been a serious deposition on the homeowners over there,” said Wrone. “We are very, very sorry. There was no way for us to know that this cable was where it was until work had started…. We want to get the job done as quickly as possible.”

Despite the five-month extension, original construction costs won’t be affected.

“The project itself is going to be a huge improvement over the old system of a T-bone intersection,” said Wrone.

After the project is completed, there will be dedicated left and right turn lanes from Musick onto Gravois, a dedicated left turn lane from westbound Gravois onto Musick, a new entrance into the Grant’s View Library and improved site distance over the hill on Musick by lowering it.

The $1.1 million project was approved by the County Council and a contract was awarded to the lowest bidder.

Musick has been closed in some form since 2017. The road reopened in spring 2018 after having been closed since October 2017 at Lavinia and Meath Drive while the county replaced the 70-year-old bridge over Sappington Creek.

The improvements were spurred by the 2015 opening of the Grant’s View Branch. County planners would not allow a library entrance off Musick unless the intersection was improved. Currently the library shares an entrance with a subdivision