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Commissioners approve highway plan and contracts; highway staff to pursue asset-management software
Summary
The board approved the county27s highway plan, accepted multiple right-of-way permits and contracts including a pug mill agreement with Milestone Contractors and the Bridge 1 contract with LaPro Construction; staff discussed buying asset-management software (Biolytics) and clarified a pending truck-diagnostics software contract.
Marshall County commissioners on April 21 approved the county highway plan, several right-of-way permits and contracts and discussed potential purchases of highway management software.
Approvals and contracts: the board voted to approve multiple permits, accepted NIPSCO work permits, approved the 2025 Highway Plan and approved the annual Local Public Agency (LPAP) report for local roads and bridges for submission. Commissioners finalized a pug mill agreement with Milestone Contractors to operate a pug mill for roughly 12,000 tons of material related to the Plymouth Airport project; the county will send an operator and accept in-kind credits for processing at a quoted $4.50 per ton. The board also finalized the construction contract for Bridge 1 with LaPro Construction.
Software and procurement clarifications: highway staff raised a previously approved software purchase for truck diagnostics and maintenance tracking flagged in March — a $6,840 initial cost and a $5,690 annual fee were discussed in prior minutes. Staff and county counsel asked for clarification because the proposal document appears to present the numbers differently; county staff agreed to locate and circulate the signed service agreement so auditors and the state review board can reconcile minutes with the actual contract terms.
Asset-management software discussion: commissioners and highway staff discussed a demonstration of Biolytics (and similar systems) that use vehicle-mounted cameras and AI to log potholes, signs and other assets and to generate work orders and condition ratings. Staff said the system could produce more frequent road-condition data than current manual PASER inspections (which staff estimated at two people for two weeks annually) and could be used for public-facing maps during events such as winter plowing. A vendor estimate referenced in the meeting was roughly $120,000 split over three or four years (about $40,000 annually); commissioners asked highway staff to schedule vendor demonstrations for the board and to check with LTAP about whether such software would satisfy quality-assurance requirements.
Why it matters: approvals move several capital and maintenance projects forward, while the software discussion signals possible changes to how the county inventories and prioritizes road maintenance work. The pug mill agreement provides an offset arrangement for processing large material volumes for a regional airport project.
Next steps: highway staff will circulate the signed truck-diagnostics contract or purchase order for review, schedule software demonstrations for commissioners and coordinate bid openings for advertised projects (several bids are scheduled to be opened May 5).
