Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Local Roads topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents ask Mercer County to study paving options for 59th Avenue; county to explore lower-cost stabilization and a pilot
Summary
Residents of 59th Avenue urged the county to address chronic washboarding and dust. County engineers said an initial study would cost about $10,000–$20,000 and discussed lower-cost stabilization and a possible chip-seal pilot; commissioners asked staff to return with options.
Residents of 59th Avenue and a portion of County Road 20 pressed Mercer County commissioners for improvements to a short but heavily used gravel road, describing persistent washboarding, dust and vehicle wear.
"There's 10 residents that live on this road," resident Joe Shute told the commission, describing multiple families, school buses and daily commercial traffic that he said has worsened the surface over time. Shute asked whether the county would pave the road or pursue a special assessment for residents to fund improvements.
County engineering staff acknowledged the problems and proposed several options. Tom Bridal said the county could do an initial scoping study and estimated that an engineering overview to determine appropriate solutions would run roughly "$10 to $20,000" and that a lower-cost pilot approach — described as stabilizing the existing base and applying a double chip seal — could be closer to $500,000 per mile versus up to $1 million if major dirt work is required. "We'd probably be around 10 to 20,000 to look into this," he said.
Commissioners discussed the practicality of forming a special assessment district (which would require a petition/consent threshold) versus a county-led pilot or targeted maintenance interventions (crowning, mag chloride, partial stabilization). They directed road staff to study the road, return with cost estimates and options (including a scaled pilot), and consult residents about what they would be willing to contribute if a special assessment were pursued.
What’s next: county staff will inspect 59th Avenue and report back with a scoping estimate and recommended options for incremental fixes or a pilot project for consideration at a future commission meeting.
