Abingdon area residents ask county for road repairs

A handful of county residents from the Abingdon area addressed the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors this morning about the condition of their road, the western end of Brookville Road.

The road was seal-coated previously but last week, it was graveled.

?We get more traffic than the road by Dickey?s trucking, why was it paved and our?s not?? asked one woman.

Residents say they are the ?forgotten? ones for the past 50 years in the county and wanted to know the long-range plans for their road, including the promise of a new bridge.

Residents told of flying gravel damaging cars and windshields, road dust covering homes and obscuring students disembarking from school buses and walking to homes. One woman said when they first bought property, the road was seal-coated. Now that?s been broken up and graveled. Calcium chloride is being applied for dust-control, but when the road grader comes along, the new gravel gets pushed into the ditches.

?We never would have bought the 20 acres and built a home there if we knew it would someday be a gravel road,? she said. ?We are trying to sell it and have our eye on property near Richland along a paved road that will always be paved.?

Jefferson County Engineer Tom Goff said their road was at one time a state highway, so that?s why it has a history of being paved. Now it is a county road.

?Vedic City, which is a lot newer than Abingdon has paved streets and sidewalks, even up to the houses,? said one woman. ?We had false hope from the last meeting because bridge surveyors came out, but nothing?s happened. We now have a cobble-stone road with gravel on top.?

Board of supervisors chairman Stephen Burgmeier said he drove the road Friday in his car with no shocks.

?There?s a soft spot where the culvert is,? he told Goff.

Supervisor Dick Reed said he heard the residents? comments and he wants them to have good roads. It takes three or four years to construct a bridge once a new bridge is put in the engineer?s schedule. Funding to build a new bridge comes from state and federal sources, not from property taxes.

Another resident said the ditches aren?t draining in that area either, holding stagnant water and providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Only one road leading to Pekin High School is paved, and the road into Abingdon getting pavement would help provide another access. And, it could come down to a safety factor because the cross-country team practices out on the road and with vehicles creating dust on the gravel, pedestrians are not visible.

Another resident advised that two or three pot holes were filled with cold mix last week and the place where a culvert was installed five to eight years ago, should have gravel, not cold mix.

?I?m still willing to participate,? he said. ?I?ve put a lot of rock and calcium on the road over 40 years and I?d like to see it maintained.

?I also want to ask about seal coat instead of zip stripping like was done on 185th,? he said.

Burgmeier noted that ?some parts where zipped are coming apart.?

Goff said not like it had before.

?We?ll be interviewing engineers [this week, to replace retiring Goff],? said Burgmeier. ?One thing we?ll ask is about familiarity with different road treatments.?

Burgmeier also advised residents that with a new bridge, and if the dust factor changes, say if seal coating is done, ?You?ll see traffic patterns change, too,? said Burgmeier. ?You?ll get more semis and traffic through there.?

Residents asked how often the road would be treated with calcium chloride for dust control. Goff said twice a year. And how far along the road would it extend?

?Just into Abingdon,? said Goff.

Supervisor Lee Dimmitt said the residents had a point; if calcium chloride could extend past Abingdon, traffic would not be dragging road dust into town with them.

?How much trouble is it to continue a bit past Abingdon?? asked Dimmitt.

Goff said it?s about $4,000 per mile.

Burgmeier and Reed agreed with the point, but asked, ?Where do you stop??

?We?ve had so many county residents over the years ask why their roads can?t get more dust control,? said Reed.

?When I added up all the county miles of road that need attention in the next five to six years, it?s 65 miles,? said Burgmeier.

Goff said he?d say the amount of miles would be half that.

?We may have 65 miles but not all need the same amount of attention,? said Reed.

Dimmitt said he thinks it?s justified to go past Abingdon with calcium chloride treatment.