Roads dominate commissioners’ meeting

The battle with county roads is never ending and several issues were on the May 11 agenda for the Chase County Commissioners.
Jeff Tidyman and Joshua Shiach with Engineering International provided updates for two county road projects.
Core samples were taken of the Champion spur and the pavement south of Wauneta.
The pair said they were surprised by the good condition of the sub-layers of the Champion spur, but the top will continue to deteriorate unless repaired.
Three options were presented. The first would mill off four inches and replace it with recycled asphalt at a cost of $2,170,000. The repairs would add an estimated 20 years to the road’s lifespan.
The second option would be to mill and replace two inches at a cost of $880,000. The repairs are estimated to last seven years.
Sealing the cracks and adding a chip seal to the existing asphalt would add three years to the life expectancy at a cost of $420,000.
Tidyman and Shiach also gave three options for the Wauneta south road, the core of which looked more uniform than the Champion spur.
Like the Champion spur, one option was to seal cracks and chip seal the road at a cost of $760,000.
The other two options were to mill and replace two inches or three-quarters of an inch.
To replace three inches would cost $1,500,000 and last 20-30 years. To replace three-fourths of an inch would cost $1,070,000 and have a seven year life expectancy.
No action was taken on either road.
Striping was also planned for this spring on the two roads, plus the millings and asphalt on Avenue 331. Due to a paint shortage these projects have been pushed back to the summer.
Discussion moved to Road 343 which travels through a privately owned pasture between Roads 736 and 738.
Talks over the past weeks have covered vacating the road. A letter from Norm Fanning’s attorney says he is against vacating the road.
Rather than taking the initiative to vacate the road, the commissioners would like to see landowners petition to have the road vacated.
The next meeting of the commissioners will be Tuesday at 8 a.m.