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County repairs gravel road soft spots, other work behind schedule

Subhead
Commissioners tour gravel roads
By
Mavis Fodness

County Highway Department workers have had their hands full repairing soft spots in gravel roads this summer.
After six weeks of dedicated efforts, they’re caught up with the worst spots for now, but with rain in the forecast they’ll watch redeveloping soft spots.
Rock County Commissioners toured county gravel roads Tuesday to check progress.
Since the end of June, crews have monitored more than 100 miles of county gravel roads and fixed dozens of frost boils.
Due to the extreme winter cold and exceptionally wet spring, frost boils developed as moisture became trapped under the road surface. This created soft spots when moisture escaped to the surface.
Commissioners began receiving frequent calls this spring about the poor condition of the county gravel roads.
“The biggest thing all spring and into the summer is not the blacktopped roads, it’s the gravel,” said Commissioner Stan Williamson at their July 16 meeting. “They’re beat up.”
Frequent rains this spring prevented the county’s heavy trucks from delivering gravel on the roads, and drivers waited for gravel surfaces to dry and firm up.
County Highway Engineer Mark Sehr said crews found that filling the soft spots with granite rock first before covering the granite with a final gravel layer worked best.
Sehr said the soft areas, “don’t have a bottom to them.”
Scott Hartog, highway maintenance supervisor, said the red granite rock helped. “For the really bad spots, we went a little bigger,” Hartog said.
The more expensive granite rock consumed about three-fourths ($73,000 in materials) of the department’s annual $100,000 gravel budget.
To put 2 inches of gravel on the 110 miles of county roads, the cost would be $400,000.
Commissioners asked Sehr if more money for gravel is needed.
“We can do a lot with another $50,000 to $75,000,” he said. “If it is allocated, we will use it.”
The extra time spent on road repairs has also cut into the department’s normal summer projects.
“We are about three to four weeks behind,” Sehr said. “Just like everyone else.”
As commissioners begin planning the 2020 budget, roads are getting a second look. “I think at some point we’ve got to address what is going on with our infrastructure,” said Commissioner Greg Burger.
Sehr said his department used to re-gravel all the county roads every four years but has since gone to fixing trouble spots.
“We’ve been pretty frugal with our aggregate the last few years,” Sehr said.

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