Cape Girardeau County Commission approves asphalt bids

Asphalt, not eclipse, was the word on everyone’s lips at the Monday, April 8, Cape Girardeau County Commission meeting.

Commissioners Clint Tracy, Charlie Herbst and Paul Koeper approved hot mix asphalt bids for an annual general contract and for chip and seal work.

Cape Girardeau companies Apex Paving and Black Diamond Paving made bids of $2.057 million and $2.018 million, respectively, for general paving work to cover as many roads as possible until temperatures drop too low.

Delta Asphalt of Cape Girardeau and Fruitland Asphalt of Jackson submitted bids for chip and seal fixing of $26,300 and $25,600, respectively.

The commissioners voted to approve the Black Diamond Paving bid and both services interested in the chip and seal work.

Koeper said the county might have to adjust the payment amounts slightly depending on the price of paving materials, something the Missouri Department of Transportation routinely does with its contracts.

“We may have to pay them a little more, up or down, depending on what that adjustment is,” he added.

Resident Jerry Eggemeyer approached the commission about asphalt conditions on county roads 450 and 465, where he said a lack of stop signs lead to asphalt trucks driving too fast and ignoring weight limits, damaging the road in the process.

“There are just so many heavy loads going across those roads … and everybody is just ignoring it. The road is going to pot, bad,” Eggemeyer said.

Koeper said he could call the state Highway Patrol to check, but he doubted asphalt trucks were leaving plans over the legal weight.

Companies would not want them to do so because of the increased risk of accidents, he said. Regardless, he said the commission could not stop them from driving down county roads.

In other business, the commissioners approved a pay request for Jackson-based Penzel Construction for the new jail.

“It looks like the masonry work is probably the biggest portion of this pay request, along with some fire protection, electrical and a little bit more on the jail cells,” Koeper said.

The amount was for $871,651.62, with the money coming from the county’s bond funds.