Calcium chloride project aims to protect county roads

Farm to Market funding allowed the Union County Secondary Roads Department to complete a 6-mile chemical base stabilization project at no cost to the county.

Union County Engineer Zach Gunsolley said as vehicles and equipment continue to become heavier and new high-traffic sites such as animal confinements are built, the burden on the rock roads becomes greater. County roads are in need of a more permanent solution than past practices have supplied.

“The status quo method of ‘rocking and blading’ is no longer keeping up with the maintenance demands on our rock roads,” Gunsolley said in a report to the Union County Board of Supervisors dated June 29.

State Farm to Market funding can only be used for roads with the Farm to Market designation. The chemical base stabilization project on Palomino Avenue and 190th and 120th streets east of Lorimor uses calcium chloride to protect those sections of road as well as save costs of future maintenance.

The $535,405.41 cost for the project came entirely from state funding. Gunsolley said the county could have completed the job in-house less expensively, estimating around $326,000, but the cost would have used more than 27% of 2020’s rock budget.

“We have 500 miles of rock road, and we can’t afford to take any rock away from those other miles that have their own rock needs,” Gunsolley said. “The Farm to Market fund helps us with the larger up-front cost of the base stabilization project, thus saving our local rock budget for other rock needs.”

The roads that received the base stabilization will still need some maintenance, but it should be less than without it, Gunsolley said. The one-mile section of 140th Street that was treated in 2018 required a lighter application and some rock in 2020, however the cost was significantly lower than the original project, $28,000 compared to $61,000.

The life expectancy of the project is unknown, but it has been successful so far Gunsolley said.

“We know that 140th Street performed exceptionally well in the terrible winter of 2018-19, and again this past winter,” he said.

The current five-year plan includes 17 more miles where Gunsolley plans to continue using Farm to Market funds to stabilize county roads with this treatment.

Gunsolley said he will continue to follow research on the best methods for maintaining rock roads under heavy traffic demands, finding the “proper balance between performance and cost.”