Harsh winter, wet spring set county secondary roads departments behind on budget, progress

Getting back into the swing of things has proved to be difficult for secondary roads departments in southeast Iowa as a harsh winter and wet spring put a delay on many projects and maxed out budgets.

Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss said in 2018, the county budgeted $206,000 for snow and ice control but only used $133,855. In 2019, the county budgeted $213,000 but exceeded the amount and used $236,439. This includes cost for salt, sand and labor.

Gravel roads were the biggest problem, specifically in the northwest quadrant of the county, he said, because of heavier truck traffic to confinement buildings. The county has 535 miles of gravel roads to maintain and crews worked on all of them all winter long. The county is split into seven territories with roughly 80 miles of routes in each one.

Scott Cline, Jefferson County Engineer, said they were not as fortunate with their roads and that the ice on gravel roads caused the most problems, as some of them were deemed impassible because the county could not safely get their equipment onto the road. He estimates the winter was the second worst he has ever seen in terms of frost boils, as some were popping up in new locations and one was 1,000 feet long and one of the worst he has ever seen. Frost boils are created when frost in a gravel roadway melts, but cannot drain because the ground below is still frozen.

As far as the budget, Cline did not have round numbers but estimated they county may have had to 'divert a couple hundred thousand dollars to efforts to take care of frost boils and put on extra rock and things like that.”

The county has 763 miles of secondary roads to maintain, with 663 miles having been worked on. The rest are unsurfaced. For sand, salt and snow plowing on the roads, Cline said the county budgeted $140,000 but had to make an amendment and spent $178,000.

Washington County Engineer Jacob Thorius said the bad luck continued in Washington County as well.

'There's no question about it, the cold and the moisture did not help anything out this year,” he said.

Going into winter, there was a surplus of moisture already in the ground, Thorius said, which did not help matters. The extreme cold and snow that continued to pile up created ideal conditions for the 'perfect storm” and caused frost boils to drive deeper.

He said the gravel roads in Washington County specifically were hit hard and difficult to fix because the county was unable to get their vehicles to some places without causing more damage. In late April, there was still frost in the ground, which is why many areas are not healed as of yet, he said.

For winter road maintenance, Thorius said the county budgeted $348,000 and spent $270,000. The Washington County Secondary Roads crews have 660 miles of gravel and 170 miles of paved roads to maintain. Although this seems like a significant savings, he said the amount spent will increase dramatically next year because the winter caused the county's salt supply to be completely depleted, meaning that saved money will have to be spent in the next fiscal year to replenish the supply.

Lack of ideal conditions in the winter caused spring projects to be delayed in Henry County, said Hotchkiss, who reported that in general, projects have fallen behind. The work they would have done in the spring had to be pushed back because of all the rain, which has caused a delay. He said the county still is trying to play catch up and get back on track, months later.

Some of the projects that have been postponed are culvert replacements, shoulder work and regular road top maintenance. Crews were working on roads more severely effected and were unable to get to these in as timely a manor as they planned.

The damage done to the roads due to the weather put a strain on the budget, also, he said. Rock work was budgeted for but exceeded what they expected. From Jan. 1 to July 1 2018, the county used 63,000 tons of rock. From Jan 1. to July 1 2019, the county used 68,500 tons of rock. The 5,500 ton difference resulted in an approximate cost increase of $55,000 he said.

Cline has seen similar problems with rock work due to flooding, however a high cost was not associated due to recovery of material.

'It washed the rock off one road two different times, but that particular location we were able to recover a lot,” he said.

The roads he was referring to that went under water twice was Yarrow Boulevard. 160th Street, Osage Avenue, 256th Street, and Fir Avenue all saw flooding as well. However, he said this was an improvement from past years, he said, referencing the major rain in 2013.

'We had some locations that went under this year that didn't go under in previous years ... some of these locations, that's the first time they've been under water since (2013),” he said.

He credits the success of lack of flooding to being prepared and not as much overflow from the surrounding creeks and rivers. Thorius said Washington County budgeted $1.5 million for rock and spent $1.49. The last two years the county only spent $1.36.

Most of the money went toward repairing frost boils and soft areas, as crews continued with patchwork to make the roads passable. The limited window of when crews could be on the roads put a stop on the timeline, he said, because crews could not work in the rain for fear of causing more damage. However, Thorius said he is optimistic the patching that did not get done this spring will be completed this fall and before winter sets in.

'We took a significant toll and we're out working everyday trying to improve stuff,” he said.