Five year roads plan approved by supervisors

The Montgomery County Secondary Roads Department is finalizing projects for its latest five year roads plan.
The plan was unveiled at the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors meeting on April 4. County engineer Karen Albert, and assistant to the engineer Barry Byers, who was present at the meeting, both said that the following road projects were hopefully to be let in the next fiscal year, but the plans were subject to change based on funding, design schedule and revised cost due to the increase in cost for materials and labor.
Projects slated for bidletting in 2023 include:
• Montgomery-Page Road – road located in the southeast portion of the county along the Montgomery/Page county lines. This project will be a joint construction project with Page County. It is a regrading of the road and seal coat.
• H34 East Overlay – Asphalt overlay of H34 from Red Oak east 2.5 miles
• H34 Widening Phase 111- Widening and asphalt overlay from the bridge west of Nature Avenue going east 2.8 miles
• FF1403, a new box culvert on 180th Street over Little Tarkio Creek.
Supervisor Mike Olson also discussed some potential projects to keep under consideration for addition to the county’s five-year roads plan, or move up. One of the roads Olson said needed to be worked on quickly was the bridge on 250th Street.
“I see that we’ve moved 250th Street to 2024, and that’s becoming a problem. I know it’s a huge problem for the county. About half of the population is screaming about that bridge, and I’m curious as to whether the engineer’s office has researched other avenues, such as bonding, or Iowa Department of Transportation loans to get that project underway,” Olson said.
One of the issues, Byers said, was that because the project was no longer covered by FEMA, who would pay 75 percent of the project, they were limited in funding options.
“If we pursue federal funding, it has additional clearances that have to be done for construction projects, and that’s what the hold-up is. A number of things have to be approved prior to them moving forward with plan development. It wasn’t required under FEMA. We had a portion of the clearances, but not as many. Since we have to look for federal funding, it’s slowing the process down,” Byers explained.
Albert said the 250th Street bridge project would hopefully be let in Fiscal Year 2024, but will be based on obtaining the approximately $3 million needed to replace the bridge.
Byers said the bitletting plans for 2024 would also be the best option to avoid weather delays once the project was underway.
“This allows us to bid let towards the end of the year, in November or December,, so they can have winter work, and then be finished by 2024, without being charged working days. It would also likely be fully federally-funded,” commented Byers.
Olson said if that time frame was accurate, it would be a huge step forward. Byers felt confident that the project would begin on the described timeline.
Olson also suggested the bridge on L Avenue south of 230th Street.The county was looking to have a road that traveled from Highway 34 to the Coburg Road that was not embargoed, and currently the bridge was not listed on the five-year plan.
Byers said if the bridge was small, it was likely just earmarked for repairs, and once repaired, it would no longer be embargoed.