Earlier this week Jason Peters, Supervisor of the County Highway Department gave the Commissioners a recap of the 2018 Road Program.
This year there were 85.4 miles of roads chip and sealed while 20.25 miles were paved and 60 miles primed with oil or calcium. Peters reported that 40 miles of roadway were reclaimed and either double chip and sealed, paved or left as gravel and about 165 miles of paint was laid on road surface.
Other highlights from this season were the paving of a mile of walking trail for Culver’s Stellar project and paving the Tyner Fire Station. Peters was also pleased with the purchase of a semi-tractor, a vibratory roller, excavator and he’s in the process of purchasing a new service truck chassis this year with the truck bed to be purchased out of next year’s budget.
The county was able to acquire close to 30,000 tons of rock from the PAR Tower project and have also had over 5,000 tons of millings crushed and hauled. Peters said his department will be hauling 6,000 to 7,000 tons of millings to haul from the US31 project in the next few weeks, again saving the county money on material.
Several projects were completed during the 2018 road plan including the Hickory Road Bridge replacement, 2017 Community Crossing projects: US6 to 3B and South Michigan Road from 17th Road to State Road 110 and the county funded North Michigan Road from 1st Road to Tyler Road. The re-lining of the drainage pipe at Lake of the Woods was also completed.
Peters also noted the historical flood event in February, the $300,000 he helped negotiate in damages from NiSource for the NIPSCO tower upgrade project and the pending reimbursement from FEMA on flood damage expenses.
In closing Peters commented, “As a department I could not be happier or prouder of the department for the work that was completed this year. We are not a team because we work together, we are a team because we respect, trust and care for each other.” He continued, “Even thought there was a lot of time this year, it just seemed like we could not get ahead. We prevailed and got stronger as a group. We learned a lot and became closer as a department and accomplished a great deal throughout this year.”
