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Pipestone County approves FWD pavement testing, engineer updates Edgerton Main Street project and surplus plan
Summary
County engineer reported signed plans for the Edgerton Main Street segment and the board approved a $6,254 bid for falling weight deflectometer testing; the engineer also outlined a potential surplus equipment sale.
Pipestone County commissioners on Feb. 11 approved a $6,254 bid for falling weight deflectometer (FWD) testing and heard from County Engineer Nick Bergman that signed plans are in hand for the Main Street project in Edgerton.
The FWD testing contract was awarded to Brahm Intertek after Bergman described the annual testing as a low-cost, useful tool for planning overlays. "When you break it down by mile, it's only a couple hundred bucks a mile," Bergman said. "It's cheap testing. It's very valuable to us." Commissioners moved and seconded the bid approval; the board voted in favor and the motion carried.
Why it matters: FWD testing helps staff assess pavement structural capacity and prioritize overlay work. Bergman said the county budgets annually to test each road once per overlay cycle and adjusts slightly year to year based on costs.
Bergman also updated the board on the Edgerton Main Street segment, saying the county received signed plans and will coordinate advertising for that project alongside a separate federal overlay. He warned the federal overlay would federalize that work and likely increase cost; to preserve competitive bidding for the local Main Street work, staff intend to include language allowing the low bidder on the local project to withdraw if awarded the federal project.
Bergman described the Edgerton scope as follow-up work on a segment where contractors earlier "milled a bunch off" and did sewer work; his goal is to "fill it back in" and address trench-settlement issues common on similar streets.
The county engineer also discussed compiling surplus equipment for sale, noting examples he expects to declare surplus: a metal truss bridge, a piece of survey equipment, a cattle guard removed from a truck, an old small gasoline engine, a trailer with frame cracks and a broken tongue, and a small recycling shed. Bergman said surplus items must be declared by the board and that he will compile pictures and serial numbers for the surplus process. He described prior practice of using sealed bids on the county website for smaller items and said he would evaluate whether to use an online auction service for larger items.
The board did not take a separate formal vote on the surplus plan during the meeting; Bergman said he would return with a compiled surplus list and documentation for formal declaration.
Quotes and sources: All direct quotes are from County Engineer Nick Bergman, who presented the items to the board during the Feb. 11 meeting.
