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Highway department awarded $223,200 for rural bridge repairs; commissioners approve equipment purchases totaling about $567,000
Summary
Pennington County received and approved a $223,200 bridal access infrastructure grant for three small structures and authorized purchases of a Freightliner plow truck, three Ford F-350 pickups and two Caterpillar rollers using cooperative contracts.
The Pennington County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 7 awarded bridal access infrastructure funding to the county highway department and authorized several equipment purchases.
The board approved awarding $223,200 from the Bridal Access Infrastructure Fund to three small structure repairs located on Southside Drive, 227th Street and 171st Avenue (project identifiers and structure IDs were read into the record). Highway Superintendent Joe Miller told commissioners the state-allocated program (created legislatively in 2020 and handled at county level) has returned $403,000 to the county over three years and that the county used an initial $50,000 for an in-house inventory of culverts and structures.
Commissioners also authorized three equipment purchases recommended by the highway department as part of its multi-year equipment plan: a 2026 Freightliner 108 SD Plus plow truck ($133,022) using a Sourcewell cooperative purchasing contract; three 2025 Ford F-350 pickups for county foremen ($205,293) from Lamb Motor Company via state contract; and two 2025 Caterpillar CW 16 pneumatic (rubber-tire) rollers ($228,890.80) from Butler Machinery, also via Sourcewell. Miller said the purchases replace aging fleet vehicles, some 32 to 35 years old, and that the department has a multi-year replacement schedule intended to keep essential equipment under warranty and in service.
Why it matters: The small-structure repairs will maintain secondary roads used by rural residents; the equipment purchases update an aging fleet and address public safety and road maintenance needs during winter operations.
Next steps: The highway department will proceed with contracts and take delivery as scheduled; the commission approved the purchases by motion. Miller said he will provide the commission additional detail about the bridal access funding if the Legislature considers changing the program's funding mechanism.
Speakers quoted in this article spoke on Jan. 7 during the highway department agenda items.
