County engineer outlines grants, culvert repair and resurfacing tests on local roads

Scott Myers, introduced at the meeting as the county engineer, told the board he has added an item for next week so the board can consider a private crossing request on DD 92 (Main Ditch) north of Lake Mills and that he has prepared an engineering report to support that request.

Myers said the county started its annual rock-and-gravel run this week with crews working in Mount Valley and then moving toward Buffalo and points east, and warned residents to expect increased truck traffic while work continues. "The guys are working in Mount Valley right now," Myers said, noting the work should be finished there within a week.

On infrastructure repairs, Myers described a recent culvert problem on the road to Pilot where crews found a hole in the bike lane and a rusted metal culvert. Rather than open-cut replacement, he said crews inserted a plastic liner and used grout to fill voids, capping the ends at the joints. "We put a plastic liner in the pipe and kind of grouted it full," Myers said, describing the solution as faster and less disruptive than a full excavation.

Myers also said the county is reapplying with neighboring counties for a safe-streets/paved-shoulder grant that would add two-foot paved shoulders (with rumble grooves) on U.S. 74 south of Lake Mills and County Road 105 to the county line. He said the county paid a consultant for the application and assessed the county's chances of winning the grant as "pretty high" given similarities to recently funded group applications. "We were denied the grant, but we're reapplying this round," Myers said.

Board members and Myers discussed the safety merits of rumble strips and centerline rumble treatments, with Myers pointing to state Department of Transportation efforts and reductions in roadway fatalities. He and other members also raised drainage concerns tied to shoulder design; Myers said DOT engineers told him subdrains in the right places reduce pooling and that adding subdrains would increase costs but could be considered if the board chose to invest locally.

Myers gave details of a short pavement rejuvenation ("Reco") planned for R20 north of Buffalo Center, explaining the maltene-based rejuvenator is intended to restore some flexibility to aged surface layers and that the contractor's application would be staged with one lane open at a time and flaggers for traffic control. "We'll have a preconstruction meeting coming up to detail all that out," Myers said, and he described the application as quick with a short curing period.

The engineer said that if the safe-streets grant is awarded, the county will further define project scope and consider prioritization within the county's five-year plan. "If we get awarded, we'll have a little bit more discussion on that and what the scope of those projects look like," he said.

The board did not take immediate action on the road items that required follow-up (the private crossing was scheduled to return as an agenda item next week; grant outcomes are pending).