Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Road Maintenance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Resident faults Highway 75 overlay in Le Mars; council disputes engineer criticism
Summary
A Le Mars resident told the council the Highway 75 overlay damaged his property and quoted engineers who said "concrete over concrete" doesn't work; city representatives said grind-and-pour overlays and asphalt overlays have been used successfully and disputed that claim.
A Le Mars resident raised complaints at the city council meeting about the recent Highway 75 resurfacing, saying the work damaged his property and that engineers told him pouring concrete over existing concrete would not be effective.
"When I walked in, I said, what do you think of pouring concrete over concrete?" said Nick Malawi, identifying himself and giving his 12th Street Southwest address. He said one engineer told him, "I've never heard of that," and another said, "why do you think we're here is because it doesn't work." Malawi said the project "screwed up my house," cited water runoff and a mailbox he had to move, and asked how much the survey and engineering work cost.
City officials on the dais pushed back on Malawi's account. An unidentified council/staff speaker said the grind-and-pour and asphalt-overlay techniques have been used in the state for years and said it was incorrect to assert the method "doesn't work." That speaker also noted other overlay projects in the county and state have held up and said each street requires a site-specific engineering decision. "It's very popular technique that's been used in the state for a dozen years," the speaker said, rejecting the claim the method was universally ineffective.
Council members and staff discussed the timeline and context for the Highway 75 work, noting the city and county have used different overlay methods on other roads and that the Business Highway 75 project was an early local instance of the technique. The council did not take formal action on the complaint during the meeting; staff directed that those concerns be discussed further at a subsequent meeting.
Malawi also asked whether the city evaluated removing concrete rather than grinding it before repaving and whether property-specific choices (such as mailbox placement and drainage) had been made with residents in mind. The council said staff would follow up and invited Malawi to attend the next meeting for further conversation.
