Road & Bridge superintendent reviews 2024 work, commissioners approve dust control and new equipment

Road & Bridge Superintendent Brian presented the department’s 2024 annual engineer’s report and a year-end summary of maintenance and construction work, then requested board approval for dust-control and equipment purchases.

Brian told commissioners the county maintains roughly 1,200 miles of roads, including 228 miles of asphalt and about 962 miles of gravel. Maintenance last year included 39 chip seals, 11 miles of asphalt overlay (contracted), and roughly 40 full-replacement miles of gravel where crews placed 400 tons or more per mile. The department reported hauling over 58,000 tons of road rock (about 3,900 loads) and placing rock on more than 100 road miles. Department figures for 2024 showed about $4.4 million spent on asphalt maintenance and about $4.0 million on gravel maintenance, with bridge maintenance adding a smaller amount; combined maintenance costs were reported at approximately $8.5 million. Construction costs (including a County Route 50 project) were shown as roughly $1.25 million, producing a total annual cost near $11.4 million when administration and overhead were included.

On the operations side, Brian described routine winter responses (22 days with snow/ice events) and the department’s plan to expand a dust-control pilot that last year added 1 mile of treated roadway west of town; Road & Bridge staff plan to add another 1–2 miles this year and collect traffic-count data to evaluate long-term savings.

Following the report, commissioners approved awarding the magnesium-chloride bid to Scottwood Industries at $1.26 per gallon for dust-control application; the motion specified the bid date of Jan. 29, 2025, and that funds will come from the Road & Bridge fund. The board also authorized purchasing a 2025 Craftco SuperShot crack-filler machine for $68,460.40 using Sourcewell (municipal cooperative) pricing and waived the county competitive-bidding requirement for that purchase; staff said the vendor does not accept trade-ins, and the department plans to send the replaced unit to auction.

Superintendent Brian provided a breakdown of the overhead and administration costs included in the department total: equipment repair and maintenance, paid time off and vacation payouts, training, inspection, and office costs. Commissioners asked for a written copy of the engineer’s report and the overhead breakdown; Brian said he would provide copies.

Approved purchases and contract awards were to be paid from identified budget lines: the crack-filler from the general fund public works equipment line item, the magnesium chloride from the Road & Bridge fund and other purchases from equipment reserves as noted.

Commissioners asked staff to schedule purchases, apply the dust-control product to selected miles, and return with additional data on any pilot expansions.