Spring rain draws attention to damaged culverts

Rainfall this past week is alerting the Henry County Roads Department to faulty culverts and other problems on secondary roads, a 'typical” occurrence after heavy spring rainstorms, said Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss.

'Whenever we get these heavy rains, we find out what problems we have. They pop up, we get calls. Sometimes we do a temporary fix and get them on our list. Sometimes we don't know until we start exploring what the problem is,” Hotchkiss said during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, May 7.

On Tuesday, April 20, Henry-Louisa Road was closed to traffic because of pipe failure. Hotchkiss said they should receive a new 60-inch pipe on Wednesday, May 8, and will put it in when the weather is fit.

Nebraska Avenue was also closed last week on Thursday, May 2, because of flooding. On Iowa Avenue, Roads Department crews completed repair work on the bridge before moving on to repair a culvert on 260th Street west of New London. The culvert was damaged from heavy rains.

The Roads Department hauled resurfacing rock, prepped paint machines and worked on signs last week. They hauled rock to Gabriel Avenue and Trenton Township and worked at the Quarry doing minor maintenance. Territory operators were also in their blades working on dust controls and resumed seeding operations.

On Tuesday, April 30, territory operators attended motor grader operator (MoGo) training through Iowa LTAP in Sigourney.

Next week, there will be a second preconstruction meeting with the railroad to discuss W55 Franklin Avenue Bridge.

'We're moving in the right direction,” Hotchkiss said. 'I would anticipate announcing a date for when we're planning closure on that bridge for construction.”

Hotchkiss said he hopes construction will begin by the end of May. The bridge will be removed and reconstructed, which Hotchkiss said could take 120 work days.

'We're bringing that road up to today's standards. It's a bridge to last us into the future, not just repairing what's there,” Hotchkiss said.

Hotchkiss said the Roads Department will continue surveying damage to culverts and working on repairs this week.