With plans being made to have a meeting to discuss the pending project to build a highway through wildlife lands east of La Platte, Nebraska, there have been additional findings about this development.
On the Iowa side of the Missouri River, the highway will bisect the Saint Marys Island mitigation site, which was purchased by the Army Corps of Engineers to provide fish and wildlife habitat.
Just east of La Platte, two tracts of land where many of the notable birds have been observed in the area, are owned by the Metropolitan Utilities District. The property was bought several years ago, to provide mitigation wetlands.
MUD property tracts along the La Platte road. Information on parcel boundaries from the website of the Sarpy County Assessors office.
Project Purpose
"The purpose of the Project is to improve connectivity and fulfill transportation needs of the region (the southern Omaha metropolitan area, including eastern Sarpy County and Bellevue as well as western Mills County) by providing a safe and free-flowing connection across the Missouri River from U.S. 75 to I-29."
The following figure shows the alignment of the highway to be built through wetlands east of La Platte. This figure is from the environmental impact statement prepared for the project.
