The three-mile stretch of Osage Street northeast of Creston that had been under construction was completed Sept. 22, and now the focus of the Union County Secondary Roads employees is culvert repairs.
Osage Street did not go quite to plan, according to Union County Engineer Steve Akes.
“When we first started, it rained a lot and slowed us down, but the last mile went pretty fast,” Akes said. “There were some delays that weren’t weather related.”
Several Union County supervisors went to Osage to drive it themselves. At that time, however, there was still work to be done.
“The north end of Osage that comes off of the REA Road was just fine, but what came off of the Townline Road ... was an absolute nightmare,” said Lois Monday, Union County supervisor.
Monday said there was a substantial amount of mud in the road, and that it also took too long to clean the ditches along Osage Street.
“We had listened for three or four weeks about how bad it was, and it just didn’t feel like we got anything done,” Monday said.
The second time Monday said she drove along Osage, however, the road was cleaned up.
“Probably there were other roads that people thought were just as bad,” Monday said, “But that one was a milestone to take care of.”
“I think it looks good. I believe it’s a lot better, and then, once the road gets packed down and the rock gets seated in, it’ll be even better,” said Ron Riley, Union County Board of Supervisors chairperson.
Before completion, workers also repaired several culverts and cleaned the ditches out which contained items like an old mattress and toilet.
“With this particular project it would be the normal labor, equipment and material,” Akes said. “It was probably slightly more (cost) because we didn’t anticipate having to spend as much time ditch cleaning, and then we had to blade it a few more times because of the rain.”
The total cost of the road was $54,614.17. That cost is split into three categories: $8,931.92 for labor, $27,859.55 for materials and $17,822.70 for equipment.
“We just have to continue to try to address the problems that are out there and come up with some ideas to make them better,” Riley said. “I think some of those ideas or solutions would be to try to come up with some more money to put more rock down next year and basically get out and have the maintainer guys make an effort to knock the shoulders off the road and maintain a better crown in the roads. ... It’ll be an ongoing process.”
Other projects
The next main project Akes said Union County Secondary Roads employees will focus on is to repair culverts throughout the county.
There are about 4,000 culverts across Union County. Culverts last approximately 20 years because of rust from running water from one side of a road to the other, a culvert’s main objective.
“We’re required to make water go where it would have gone had the road not been there,” Akes said. “If it naturally went that way before the road existed, you about have to make the water go that way after the road existed.”
Akes said his employees will repair from eight to 10 culverts before the weather gets too cold, which will add up to about 30 culverts repaired for 2016. Monday hopes the work throughout the county will be maintained.
“I know the roads are bad, I know they are. And if they’re really, really bad, I’m sure we could find the funds. ... Keep the roads up and they won’t go bad all at once,” Monday said. “Everybody has to pull together in the same direction. You can’t just be like a piece of taffy and one pull one way and one pull the other ... and not have an end result.”
Monday also said she does not want to take more bonds out to complete large projects, as the county has already paid off approximately $6.5 million in bond debt in the past eight years.
The original bonds for county supervisors, which were for the CHS bean mill plant and road projects, were set at $515,000 in 2007, $4,245,000 in 2009, $3,980,000 in 2010 and $3,300,000 in 2011, which added up to a total county debt of $12,040,000.
As of September 2015, county supervisors have made payments to each of the bonds, and now, the total debt is at $5,525,000. That is a difference of $6,515,000.
“I don’t really think we’ve changed a lot since then (2007),” Riley said. “We’ve just tried to do the best we can with the budget we have. In 2007, I don’t think we were giving 100 percent of the secondary roads budget, and now we’re at 100 percent of the secondary roads budget.”