Bourbon County road director reports asphalt plant running but urges plan for repair and targeted paving

Bourbon County road staff told commissioners they had restarted the county’s asphalt plant and that, on a recent test run, “it was 320 degrees and it wasn't leaking,” the county’s road director said, reporting a temporary fix to a longstanding equipment problem.

Commissioners and staff spent the bulk of the briefing weighing whether to proceed with in-house asphalt work this season while the plant remains operational or to limit work to smaller, lower-risk projects until a permanent repair is in place. One commissioner warned, “hope is not a plan,” urging staff to develop cost estimates for repairing or replacing the plant’s boiler so the county would not be mid-project if the unit failed.

Staff described the plant as old but serviceable for now and said their immediate goal was to use what oil and materials remain rather than waste roughly $50,000 worth of heated oil on site. The director said he had the plant running and was conserving oil at lower temperatures until full production resumed.

Cost and scope figures discussed at the meeting included an estimate of roughly $430,000 to complete two miles of Yale Road under the current projection. Commissioners also reviewed a near-term plan that would prioritize smaller roads first to limit the risk of a midseason stoppage. A county staff estimate for three prioritized in-house roads came to $439,310; an outside contractor bid was cited at $601,005.59, a difference of roughly $162,000 based on the figures discussed.

To stretch funds, staff advocated shifting more work to chip-and-seal treatments. The director called chip-and-seal “way cheaper,” supplying an example unit price discussed during the meeting of $18,586 per mile in one illustration and noting that training from a vendor (Greg Dishman) will show staff how to operate the chip-and-seal equipment.

Commissioners asked staff to keep a running spreadsheet of project costs and updates to compare in-house and contracted prices as work proceeds and proficiency improves. Staff set an internal target to begin asphalt operations in early May, weather permitting, but emphasized that full-season plans depend on the plant’s reliability and whether a backup boiler or replacement can be sourced quickly.

Next steps: staff were asked to gather repair/ replacement cost estimates for the plant’s boiler, continue tracking project costs on the spreadsheet, and prioritize smaller roads to test plant endurance before committing to longer resurfaces.