Road and Bridge superintendent summarizes 2024 work; commissioners approve trailer, crack-filler and magnesium chloride purchases

Road and Bridge Superintendent presented the department’s 2024 year-end engineers report and asked the commissioners to approve equipment purchases and a dust-control contract.

What happened: The board accepted the Road and Bridge supervisor’s recommendation and awarded a bid to Hoyt’s Trailer Center of Topeka for a 2025 Diamond C HDT trailer at a total purchase price of $17,600, to be paid from the equipment reserve fund. Commissioners then approved a motion to solicit formal bids for a road sweeper (with possible trade-in), to be funded from the general fund public works equipment line item.

The board later waived the county’s purchasing policy for competitive bidding for cause, authorizing purchase through Sourcewell (government contract number 118463) of a 2025 Craftco Super Shot 125 crack-filler machine (Craftco Incorporated, Wichita) at quote BBBQ70177 in the amount of $68,460.40, to be paid from the general fund public works equipment line item. The superintendent said the vendor does not accept trade-ins and the county will likely send the replaced unit to auction.

Dust control and materials: Commissioners approved the bid from Scottwood Industries, Inc., at $1.26 per gallon for magnesium chloride (bid date 01/29/2025), to be used in an expanded dust-control program on higher-traffic gravel roads. The superintendent described a pilot mile west of town added last year; staff recommended adding one to two more miles this year and collecting traffic-count data to quantify savings in rock replacement and maintenance frequency.

2024 activity and costs: The annual report presented to the board said Coffey County maintains about 1,200 miles of road (including 228 miles of asphalt and 962 miles of gravel). Reported 2024 work included 39 chip-seal miles, 10 overlay miles, 40 full replacement miles of gravel (defined as adding 400 tons or more on a mile), replacement of three culverts larger than 25 square feet, 58,000 tons of road rock hauled (about 3,900 loads) and 2,05 work orders issued (106 public requests and 99 county-initiated work orders). The superintendent summarized maintenance costs: roughly $4.4 million for asphalt roads and a little over $4.0 million for gravel roads, for total maintenance about $8.5 million; construction costs (including a paving project on old U.S. 50) were about $1.25 million, and overhead/administration added roughly $1.6 million for an annual total of about $11.4 million.

Why it matters: The equipment purchases and the dust-control program are linked to the maintenance strategy described in the report—staff said targeted dust-control can reduce the frequency of rock replacement on high-traffic gravel miles and lower routine maintenance costs.

Questions and next steps: Commissioners asked about trade-in policy (the crack-filler vendor does not accept trade-ins), freight and delivery (there is a quoted flat freight rate included in the Sourcewell contract), and the superintendent said the department will track traffic counts and the effect of dust-control on maintenance cycles. The Scottwood magnesium chloride award was made conditional on bid terms and paid from the road-and-bridge fund.

Ending: Staff will proceed with the purchases and solicitations; the board requested copies of the engineer report and said it wanted data on dust-control performance in coming months to inform future budget decisions.