County approves five-year road program

     Jones County’s Five Year Road Construction Program hearing was held at the Engineer’s Office on Dec. 4.

     County Engineer Derek Snead and Assistant Engineer Todd Postel outlined the next five years of projects:

Fiscal Year 2020 (accomplishment year)

     • 140^th Avenue bridge replacement over Bear Creek, $480,000

     • Lead Mine Road from Highway 64 to Shaw Road, grading and culvert replacement, $770,000

     • Shaw Road from Highway 151 to Linn Street, paving and culvert replacement, $2,250,000

     • 118^th Avenue twin culvert replacement, $130,000 (This is a new project that was added to the program.)

Fiscal Year 2021

     • Buffalo Road bridge replacement, $500,000

     • Madison Road twin culvert replacement over Barto Creek, $250,000

Fiscal Year 2022

     • County Road E-34 paving from Fairview Road to Anamosa city limits, $1,250,000

Fiscal Year 2023

     • County Road X-64 PCC overlay from Cedar County to Massillian Road, $4,500,000

Fiscal Year 2024

     • County Road E-28 paving from X-28 to Anamosa city limits, $1,000,000

     Snead said projects that are generally $90,000 or less are not included on the program, and termed in-house maintenance projects.

     “These projects are not let through a contractor,” he explained.

     Snead said the five-year program he presents every year is more concise, more realistic than years past.

     “We identified the funds we have and the roads and bridges that need it the most,” he said.

     Secondary Roads receives money from basically four main funding sources:

     • Local (local option sales tax)

     • FM (farm to market)

     • SWAP

     • Bridge funds

     Postel shared that a couple of weeks ago, they flew the county’s new drone over Buffalo Road as a test job for surveying. “It has amazing ground accuracy,” Postel said.

     What would have taken survey crews three weeks to complete only took them an hour to accomplish.

     With so many of the county’s bridges now on the uptick, Snead said their focus has shifted to paved roads with the age of the roads.

     Several people were in attendance concerned with 75^th Avenue near Cascade, which is not on the five-year program. The residents say the road is in poor condition.

     Snead outlined several options for the roadway surface, giving them approximate figures:

     • Double seal coat and patching, $55,000

     • 1.5 inches of asphalt over the existing roadway and patching, $55,000

     • Mill off the surface, establish a crown in the roadway, and build a new surface with 4-inch asphalt, $140,000

     • Concrete overlay, $250,000

     Back in 2009, the county spent about $69,000 to double seal coat the roadway; however, it proved to not hold up well.

     “The problem is the edges,” said Postel. “If we don’t take care of the edges, we’ll be right back where we’re at.”

     He said the roadway also needs to be wider at 28 feet versus the 20 feet it’s at now. “In our ordinance, roads have to be 28 feet wide.”

     “If we pave a road that’s not graded, we’ll have more issues and it’ll cost us more in the long-run,” said Snead.

     He suggested the county remove the seal coat roadway, turn it into gravel, and apply the surface stabilization product over the gravel for a summer or two to see how it holds up.

     “You need a stable surface before we can do anything,” Snead said.

     The residents were against a gravel road, when they moved to 7^th Avenue because of the hard-surface road.

     “We don’t want this pushed on the back burner,” argued one resident. “I’m worried you won’t touch it after the surface stabilization.”

     Snead said he doesn’t feel it’s the best use Jones County taxpayers’ money to double seal coat 75^th again.

     “We need to see how the surface stabilization performs first,” he said in terms of promising anything to the residents. “There is no strength to the base of that roadway. Surface stabilization provides that structure to the road.”

     Postel felt Secondary Roads could take on the project in-house as a maintenance project for about $90,000.

     The board approved the five-year road program as presented.