Board approves contract rock, surface stabilization contracts

     Surface stabilization and contract rock were discussed during the April 1 Jones County Supervisors meeting.

   The board approved the list of three gravel roads slated for surface stabilization this year: Forest Chapel Road, 65^th Avenue, and Violet Road.

   Jones County Secondary Roads has been applying surface stabilization (magnesium chloride) to gravel roads throughout the county since 2012.

   "We've been doing this now for over a decade," said County Engineer Derek Snead.

   Hed said the goal with this particular project is to apply the product for a year or two and the hold off for a few years to see how well the roadway holds up.

   The reason behind adding Violet Road is due to a nearby road construction project. Snead while they don't anticipate Violet Road necessarily being a detour, they are aware people will utilize it as such, and traffic would likely increase.

   Both Forest Chapel Road and 65^th Avenue received surface stabilization last season.

   "They've been in our rotation for the last 10 years or so," Snead said.

   These three roads amount to just under 7 miles of surface stabilization this year, which is typically where Snead likes to be for this annual project due to the budget.

   He did propose adding about 1.6 miles of Lead Mine Road to the surface stabilization program this year if the board was agreeable to spending a little more.

   "That's in our top five as far as traffic," he said.

   Snead said they like to focus more on gravel roads that go from paved road to paved road.

   "We look at things like higher traffic counts, a lot of homes, etc.," he said of decent candidates.

   The proposed budget for surface stabilization is around $60,000.

   Three contracts and a sub-contract were approved for contract rock this season.

   A total of about 136 miles of granular surface roads will receive rock this year. That will amount to just under 80,000 tons of rock. The average price per ton came to $12.52.

   "That's about 2.5 percent higher than it was last year," noted Snead, "which is exceptional. The average unit price last year was $12.21 a ton. So a very small increase."

   The total for contract rock this season will come in just under $1 million at $960,000.

   The board approved contracts with Weber Stone at $403,161, River City Stone at $190,792.80, and Wendling Quarries at $262,546.50.

   Snead originally thought rock prices could increase between 6 to 8 percent above last year. With only a 2.5 percent increase, he proposed a sub-contract with Weber Stone for additional gravel roads.

   "Still keeping it within the budget that we have projected," he told the board. "Add a few roadways that we feel we'd get a lot of bang for our buck at these prices. They are roads that we were looking at undertaking ourselves. But at this price, this will save us some money.

   The sub-contact with Weber would add rock to the entirety of Violet Road and 2.25 miles of County Road E-17 from Highway 151 to the west to Old Cass Road.

   Snead wasn't ready for the board to take any action yet on a sub-contract with River City, but he did propose additional roads within their district as well. Those would include Camp Fire Road, Jay Road, and Shover Road, all off 151 north of Monticello.

   "Those are ones we haven't done for a number of years," said Snead of receiving rock. "They're dead-end roads; those are ones we typically do ourselves."