The following appeared in the Rock County Star Herald on July 8, 1965.
Weather Slows Work On County Highway Projects
Maintenance Work Behind Schedule, Too
The county highway department’s 1965 road building program is being delayed by wet weather, County Engineer Julius Brown said yesterday.
In fact, he said, the wet weather is also slowing up the county’s normal maintenance work, and is leaving some of the roads in a condition which the department frowns upon, but can do nothing about until the soil conditions are dryer.
Klausler Construction Co., Inc., which has the contract for grading and graveling the 10 1/2 mile stretch of CSAH No. 9, from the state line north to U. S. 16, terminating about a mile east of Luverne, is operating behind schedule.
“I think we’d have been done by now, if we’d had a normal spring,” said Brown. The grading work has been “roughed in” up to within about a mile and a half of U.S. 16 this week. Finish grading and graveling still remains to be done.
Blacktopping Delayed
The blacktopping contractor hasn’t been able to start, Brown said because of the wet condition of the roads, “He wanted to start hauling base material this week, but it’s too wet.”
Blacktopping schedule to be done includes a stretch on old TH 23 in Springwater township, extending south four miles from the blacktop which extends west of Hardwick, and a two and one-half mile stretch between this road and new TH 23.
Brown said that county maintenance crews are working every minute they can on road repairs in various parts of the county. This includes restoring shoulders washed away by floods, breakup on blacktop roads, and similar work. “But just about the time the ground can be worked, it rains again, and we can’t do a thing,” said Brown. “In fact, this is the wettest season I’ve ever experienced.”
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