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Fair ~ River stage: 33.98 Falling Saturday, November 21, 2009 |
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County road and bridge advisory board holds fast to policyWednesday, September 3, 2008The two decisions made by Cape Girardeau Road and Bridge Advisory Board on Tuesday were simple. The first refers a request from property owners living along County Road 623 to get a variance on easements to Cape Girardeau County commissioners. The advisory board affirmed its agreement to stick to the road paving policy adopted by the county commission in 1999 stating that all easements must be 60 feet. On County Road 623, all but two property owners signed easements, but they cannot get their road paved because the remaining property owners have balked at signing larger easements than their neighbors. The board also reviewed its options for handling a contract with Blevins Asphalt of Mount Vernon, Mo., for chip-and-seal paving. Blevins bid $788,124 to pave nearly 12 miles of county roads. The company arrived early to do the work. Two county roads, 363 and 383 were not graded in time by county workers, so Blevins could not pave them. Highway administrator Scott Bechtold asked Blevins to submit a change order to return and finish the paving, but the change orders would have cost the county nearly 75 percent more per road than the original bid. The board agreed to hold off the paving until next year. It is not clear how the outstanding portion of the contract will be resolved. Bechtold also offered a list of roads for the 2009 hard surfacing program. Board chairman Larry Payne expressed disappointment on learning that slightly more than six miles were listed, when the county has more than 23 miles of roads with signed and recorded easements. 335-6611, extension 127
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Peg, why weren't the county roads prepared by the county workers? What job took higher priorority over preparing the roads? Now the county has to spend more money because of change order! Who tells the county workers what jobs to perform on a daily basis? Larry Bock??? Please give me and the other taxpayers answers. The entire county governement is a farce.
60 feet easements?!!! This is excessive. The easement width from center of road was 50 feet at one time, for a total width of 100 feet. Anything at 120 to 150 feet wide is in the range of a state highway easement. I can understand the County in perhaps wanting to plan for the future, but I think it was that they are just afraid to deal with the land owners to ask later for more property easements. Now, what we have are small county roads with wide road banks making a drastic change to the country roadsides - and we are none the better for that loss of our county rural character.
So the 2 roads wern't ready for the chip & seal contractors if I understand it. What Idoit has the graders work day planned? Did they not know the cntractors were coming? If contractors showed up unexpected, shame on them. Maybe we don't need their sevices, if this is the way they operate. If it is our county's fault, lets get it together boys. I'm tired of dust,mud, and pot holes.
JJM -- The total easement is 60 feet.
As for the two roads not being prepared, they were replacement roads for one without all the easements, if I recall correctly, so added late to the program.
The contractor, Blevins, came in a bit early and worked more quickly than anticipated, Bechtold at various times told the commissioners and the road and bridge board.
JSS - the "easements" have been 50 feet from the center of the road. We all moved our fences and trees were cut. It would not make sense to have only 30 feet from the center of the road, that is too narrow. But - different easements, or none, for different people have all occurred throughout the county.
The county road easements are 30' from the center of the county road, measured each way. That creates a total road easement width of 60', measured from edge to edge with the county road in the center.
One more thing concerning road paving. I'm the landowner who provided the majority of the road easement on County Road 383. Jokerst Construction performed the road widening/roadbed improvements this summer. They did significant roadbed filling and corrections and it appears to be a good job.
County roads typically benefit from having corrective grading done one summer, and then letting the new roadbed consolidate over the winter. This usually requires lots of gravel applied over the winter. But the end result is a quality roadbed that will support the asphalt for years to come.
I'm a civil engineer and earthwork construction is my specialty. If County Road 383 had been paved this year I don't believe the paving would have lasted very long. I do hope the county can accelerate the paving program.