HERMANN – A flatbed tractor-trailer loaded with a large excavator crept along Highway 100 West early last week, slowly making its way up what locals refer to as John Deere Hill just past the Sydenstriker-Nobbe farm implement dealership.

Behind the trailer carrying the hulking piece of heavy equipment — which extended beyond the edge of the trailer, causing oncoming motorists to ease off their side of the roadway onto what little shoulder the highway has — a line of cars, trucks and SUVs was cued up, the drivers resigned to a long, slow drive for a while with little opportunity to pass the tractor-trailer because of the curves and hills that lay in front of them for the next several miles.

Indeed, the oversized load would continue its measured pace westward, leaving Highway 100 and getting on Highway J, maintaining its journey to First Creek Road, where the tractor driver had a bit of an issue swinging his trailer from J onto First Creek Road. Hopefully, the tractor-trailer didn’t meet an oncoming vehicle because clearly there was no room to pass.

That excavator likely was headed to a quarry on First Creek Road that’s being reopened by Capital Quarry to dig limestone that’s needed for the construction of the Google and Amazon data centers being developed in Montgomery County.

The construction of the data centers is requiring a lot of rock — from several quarries in the region. How much rock? Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte,R-Hermann, at last week’s Commission session said he has been told the construction of the data centers will require about “one million tons of rock.”

Much of that is expected to come from the First Creek Road quarry, which the company plans to open up for business in about two weeks, Schulte said. The rock will be loaded onto trucks and hauled along First Creek Road to Highway J and then east through Hermann to Highway 19 North to the sites of the data centers, one on the south side of Interstate 70 near Highway 19, the other closer to New Florence up Highway 19.

County officials, as well as regional officials of the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), are bracing for what could happen to some of the roads carrying the weight of the rock-filled dumptrucks.

Highway J could take a beating, county officials say — at least that short potion of J east of First Creek until it connects with Highway 100. Until it received a coat of chip-and-seal a few years ago, Highway J had not been given any significant upgrade in many years. It received chip-and-seal at essentially the same time nearby Highway F received a chip-and-seal coating. Highway F’s upgrade came, in part, because of the damage it had received from dumptrucks loaded with clay taken out of a quarry on Benson Road, located in the northwestern portion of the county not far from the Gasconade River.

Highway F has held up relatively well since it received chip-and-seal; Highway J not so much, which is another cause for concern about potential damage from the heavy trucks. And then there’s the possible damage to First Creek Road, especially during wet weather such as the area has received this spring and early summer.

But the truck traffic generated by the clay pit is minor compared to the truck traffic to the area’s rock quarries, thanks to the data center projects.

Dumptrucks heading to and from the quarry on Saw Mill Road in Hermann resemble the march of ants going to and from a particular place. It’s a steady stream of vehicles.

“Twenty-four seven,” said Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, during last week’s first-Thursday-of-the-month session held in Owensville City Hall. The situation might not be quite that bad, but his point is well taken: There is a seemingly constant stream of heavy trucks going to and from that quarry. And it has taken its toll on that road, portions of which are maintained by MoDOT, Gasconade County and the city of Hermann.

“That whole road is a disaster…and will be until they’re done at the data centers,” Holland said.

Schulte said he has been in contact with MoDOT’s Meramec Region Engineer Preston Kramer about preparing for remedial work that’s expected as a result of the increased truck traffic.