Washington County hopes to alter FM road designations

WASHINGTON — Washington County officials are considering re-designation for both a current and proposed Farm to Market road in the Kalona area.

Washington County Engineer Jacob Thorius said a Farm to Market designation made roads eligible for more funding sources to handle higher-volume, higher-weight traffic. The label applies to roughly a third of roads in the county, but cannot be changed unilaterally.

“You can’t just go change stuff without going through a review process,” he said at a meeting Tuesday morning. “Making sure the system has continuity, that it doesn’t have dead ends, and it meets up with neighboring counties.”

Thorius said a review board should consider removing Farm to Market status from Juniper Avenue, and add it to Kiwi Avenue. between the roads’ intersections with 170th Street and 155th Street close to Brenneman Pork. The change would relocate 1.75 miles of FM designation, but not change the county’s total.

As of 1998, Juniper Avenue saw an average of 90 vehicles per day, to Kiwi’s 25. Today, Thorius said the ratio was 25:400, respectively.

“Traffic has grown on (Kiwi) far more than we anticipated,” he said. “And there are some concerns with the base stability in terms of maintaining that pavement, and so changing the classification of this road to Farm to Market will allow us to have some other funds, to do some work to maintain that base.”

Thorius said Farm to Market Review Board members had voiced openness to the plan, and “agreed it was a no-brainer,” but that submission of a formal consideration required supervisors to sign off.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com