Hot weather causing pavement to buckle

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Sometimes you just can?t win ? if you?re a public works director or engineer.

The freezing and thawing during the winter causes water-main breaks and the hot weather in the summer buckles pavement.

Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss told county supervisors, during their regular meeting Tuesday, that the recent string of 90-degree days has caused two ?pavement blow-ups,? that were repaired by secondary road crews last week.

Hotchkiss said the pavement buckling was on Oasis Avenue north of 170th Street and Iowa Avenue south of Mt. Pleasant. ?The blow-ups are to be expected because of the hot temperatures,? he explained.

Other than pavement problems, things are going well, he said. ?We are busy, so that is a good thing.?

Paving began June 14 on the 220th Street project (six-mile stretch of county road between Highway 218 and Racine Avenue), the engineer said. ?We have approximately 1.5 miles paved to date, we were slowed due to the weather last week and small breakdowns.?

Barring delays from weather and breakdowns, construction crews can pave at least a half-mile per day, Hotchkiss said. ?They started paving at 6 a.m. this morning and will go until at least 6 p.m. tonight. They worked until 7:30 p.m. one night last week. The project is going well.?

He said the paving has advanced past Oasis Avenue so that intersection is now open to travel.

?The contractor is working diligently to keep the grade together,? Hotchkiss continued, ?but we need rain because water holds the rock together.?

Contractors also are in the midst of a bridge replacement project on Ash Avenue, which is also going well, Hotchkiss said. The contractor is now working on the bridge abutments and poured the north abutment Monday.

The county engineer also reported that he is working on plans for replacing the territory shed located on Oasis Avenue, a project for later this summer. He said the project might not have to be bid because the total cost of the building may fall under the bidding threshold.

Supervisors also approved extending the fuels contract with Farm Service for another year. Farm Service, Hotchkiss reported, was agreeable to the extension.

In his weekly secondary-roads report to the board, Hotchkiss said crews finished work on the 260th Street shoulder-pulling project; did cold patching at various locations, continued working on contract rock and mowed the shoulders of county roads.

The supervisors will not meet Thursday, June 23, due to a lack of a quorum. Their next meeting will be Tuesday, June 28, at 9 a.m., in the courthouse.