Jefferson County plans bridge replacements, road repairs

FAIRFIELD — The Jefferson County Board of Supervisors awarded a contract Monday to Iowa Bridge & Culvert of Washington to replace a bridge at the edge of Maharishi Vedic City.

The county and Maharishi Vedic City will each pay 10 percent of the cost of the bridge since half of it is county property and the other half belongs to the city. Jefferson County Engineer DeWayne Heintz said the bridge, on 175th Street on the south side of Maharishi Vedic City, is in disrepair and will be replaced with a box culvert.

The contract with Iowa Bridge & Culvert is for just under $240,000, which was 20 percent below the engineer’s estimate and the second place bid.

“For Iowa Bridge & Culvert, we’re basically in their backyard,” Heintz said. “It’s a job geared toward the work they do, and they don’t like other people playing in their neighborhood.”

Heintz said the county tried to be as contractor-friendly as possible for the project by giving a large work window in which to complete the project. He said this allowed the county and Vedic City to keep the cost down.

“Had we stuck a tight work schedule on this project, we could have seen the cost go above the engineer’s estimate,” he said.

The contract states that the latest the company can start on the project is Aug. 15, and then it has 55 work days to complete it.

“This isn’t really a big job for a bridge contractor. It’s just filler work they can do between other projects,” Heintz said.

Apart from the city and county picking up 10 percent each of the cost, the other 80 percent will come from Department of Transportation swap funds from the federal government channeled through the state.

Other projects on horizon

-The county will replace two bridges as part of a bridge bundle project, likely starting in April. One of the bridges is on 146th Boulevard east of Germanville where it crosses Burr Oak Creek. The other is on 257th Street in the southern part of the county.

-The city of Fairfield overlaid a portion of South 32nd Street, and now the county will overlay its portion of the road where it connects to Libertyville Road. The county’s portion is just under 2 miles and will cost $900,000.

-The county will do a heavy duty chip seal on Nutmeg Avenue from just north of the Heartland Grain Coop to Salina Road. Heintz expects the project to be ready for bids in June, but it could be finished either this year or next.

“That gravel road sees a lot of truck traffic from grain haulers who are taking their grain to Heartland Coop, and all that traffic has been hard on the road,” Heintz said. “It’s not performing as well as we hoped.”

The county plans to “beef up” the road by stabilizing its base, and adding chips and oil to eliminate the dust.

“If you’re on the road in August or September when it’s dry, you can’t see a vehicle 100 feet in front of you because of the dust,” Heintz said.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com