Landslides may stop work on Eagle Drive

The Van Buren County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing Monday afternoon on the status of Eagle Drive near Farmington, but has not yet decided if the road will be closed.

During the meeting, 18 people voiced concerns about emergency-response, farming and tourism access if the road was not repaired and re-opened.

Additional slides on the road, which runs along the Des Moines River near Farmington, were discovered this fall leading Van Buren County Engineer Dave Barrett to recommend that section of the road be closed.

Barrett said Van Buren County was awarded a $225,056 FEMA grant in September 2010 for repairs to Eagle Drive north of 277th Street. The original scope of work described a 450-foot length of roadway to be repaired containing two landslides.

Van Buren County awarded a contract of $187,284 to Cole Construction of Keosauqua in August for repairs. The scope of work specified an 800-foot length of roadway to be repaired containing three landslides.

During the early part of making repairs, Cole Construction told the county about the additional landslides.

?Presently, Eagle Drive between 270th and 277th streets has sustained a total of seven landslides all within approximately 3,700 linear feet of roadway,? said Barrett. ?Similarly to the original three, the slides are a result of either runoff overtopping the road or bank destabilization between the roadway and the river?s edge.?

Barrett said the original contract called for establishing a drainage ditch between the roadway and bluff, installing drainage structures to prevent roadway overtopping from bluff runoff, removing all unstable material and re-establising the roadway base and the riverbank with stable material.

?We would also secure and protect the river embankment with rip rap,? Barrett said.

He presented four alternatives and recommended ?closing the contract and closing the roadway based on the continued concerns regarding the potential to experience additional landslides following the accrued landslides of the proceeding two years.?

Kent Muntz asked the supervisors to work with Cole Construction and re-bid the project.

?I understand the scope of the project increased, but with FEMA money, the county?s share is not much,? he said.

Juston Cole of the construction company thought it would take an additional $30,000 to open the road.

Barrett said most of the money on the original program would come from FEMA, with any new expenses paid by the county through farm-to-market road funds.

?That would mean we could have that much less on our bridge project and blacktop resurfacing,? he said.

The supervisors directed Barrett to meet with Cole and get estimates on what has already been done and more specifics on repairs to the additional slides.

Supervisor chairman Marvin Philips said the matter would be on the agenda for the 10 a.m. meeting Monday.

If the board decides to close the road, it would have to hold two public hearings.