Steele County authorizes bid plans for County Road 23 paving as quality concerns surface
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Summary
The commission approved plans to bid paving of County Road 23 (and part of County Road 5) but raised quality concerns about earlier work on County Road 23 after an engineering review found sections failed ride-quality standards; Knife River was asked for a written correction plan.
Steele County commissioners voted Feb. 12 to allow Interstate Engineering to draft bid plans for paving County Road 23 west of County Road 8 and a portion of County Road 5, while pressing a contractor to fix deficiencies on recent work.
Commissioner Ted Johnson moved and Commissioner Richard Strand seconded the motion to authorize Mike Bassingthwaite of Interstate Engineering to prepare plans and specifications for the project; the motion passed on a roll call vote with Commissioner Russell Walcker, Commissioner Richard Strand, Commissioner Ted Johnson and Chairman Brian Tuite voting yes and Commissioner Randy Richards abstaining.
The vote came amid a lengthy discussion of the County Road 23 project. Mike Bassingthwaite said several areas did not pass the ride-quality inspection and that there are problem locations east and west of the bridge and near the Traill County line. The board asked that Knife River provide a written plan describing how it will correct the identified deficiencies.
County officials said the authorization to draft bid documents is intended to keep the county on schedule for a 2018 paving program while unresolved quality issues are addressed. Road Superintendent Reed Oien told commissioners the department plans to crack-seal about 52 miles in 2018 and initially projected about 41 miles of graveling; commissioners expressed a preference to see 80–100 miles of graveling and said they will revisit gravel schedules in March.
Interstate Engineering will prepare the bid-ready documents and return them to the board for approval before soliciting bids. The county did not set a construction start date at the Feb. 12 meeting. The board asked staff to seek Knife River's written corrective plan and report back at a future meeting.