Marshall County Highway Supervisor Jason Peters presented the department’s asset management plan to the commissioners Monday morning.
The list he gave the governing body are the roads that need to be reclaimed. He explained that the roads will be ground up with the hopes of surfacing the roads in the next two to five years. Resurfacing will depend on funding, according to Peters.
About $500,000 is needed to be able to resurface the roads in a timely fashion. The commissioners hope the funding will be there next year to begin resurfacing projects. The highway department plans to reclaim, or grind up, 43 miles of roads this season.
Peters said the amount it takes to keep repairing the rough roads in the county is not feasible.
“We can’t afford to keep patching roads,” said Peters. “Patch is cold patch which is made for temporary patches for potholes and stuff like that. It’s not for large segments of roads. When we do that a lot of times the road blows back up. If we would have had an extreme winter like we did two years ago, I think we would be in a much different position than what we are right now.”
Peters commented that safety is the number one issue that faces the highway department and the commissioners when it comes to condition of roads.
“When you’re plowing in the winter and you have major potholes in the roads it’s hard to fix those and cold patch them at that time of the year. This is early Spring. We’re still dealing with potential rainfall yet this year. A lot of roads that have severe potholes or a lot of cracks in them – rain penetrates into them and it just creates a soft spot and the roads start to crumble in those spots.”
Peters added that reclaiming these roads is the last resort for the routes that need it the most.
“As a county, we need to get to a point where we can maintain our highly traveled roads and keep them in good shape and start looking at minimum work on secondary roads. Some of them will have to go back to that gravel stage. The problem is if we invest all of this into it now to get all of these roads back up to where they need to be we have to have the funding to maintain those roads. In three to five years from now we’ll have to put a seal coat back over these roads once we get them done. Laurie [Baker, Highway Administrator] and I are coming into our fourth year. The first roads we did are scheduled for resurface next year. We haven’t even covered two-thirds of our county yet.”
The pug mill has helped the department in keeping down costs and stretching the amount of miles that can be repaired.
The commissioners will review the list for future approval.
Highway Administrator Laurie Baker cautioned the commissioners that by the year 2020, road repair funding or jobs will be cut as there won’t be money in the budget if additional revenue isn’t sought.
The fate of funding for all county highway departments will be realized at the end of the week when the state legislature adjourns on Friday. Legislators put road funding at the top of the list for discussion in this year’s session.
