Limestone Road open
Staff writer
People in and around Tampa have been complaining for months about the condition of the roads leading into the town. The blacktop is crumbling along the edges and full of potholes.
Marion County Road and Bridge Department has been concentrating on fixing the problem this summer.
“Those roads were constructed years and years ago and were not designed for today’s traffic load,” said John Summerville, acting public works director.
“This has been a learning process for us. You’ve got to do the whole project, not just the shoulders.”
And that takes time. It takes approximately two weeks of working days per mile to completely redo the road, according to Summerville. It also takes road employees away from their regular jobs.
The county is employing the same process on Tampa roads that was used to redo the Roxbury Road, which appears to be holding up well. The asphalt surface is milled, a new, solid gravel base established, and a mixture of rock and millings placed on the surface.
According to Summerville, the four miles running south of Tampa to 290th now are finished and open to through traffic.
He said the blacktop was ground up and the road widened to 24 feet. Then 800 tons of road rock were placed on the roadway in layers watered down and compacted with rollers. Finally, a mixture of 500 tons of rock plus 100 tons of millings were spread on top.
At peak times, at least 10 employees were working on the project: five truck drivers, two roller operators, two motor grader operators, and one water truck driver.
“Hopefully, the new road will stand up to the traffic,” Summerville said.
With fall harvest coming on, it will get a lot of use.
Tampa mayor Jim Clemmer said he hasn’t had a chance to drive on the new road but it looks fine. He expressed appreciation for the widening of the road.
The focus now has shifted to the four miles from K-15 to Tampa. The crew has three miles to go. Summerville hopes to have that section of 330th completed by winter, but with five or six weeks of work remaining, he can’t guarantee it.
“When freezing temperatures set in, we have to quit,” he said.
According to Summerville, the section of 330th from Tampa to Quail Creek will be tackled next year. That five-mile stretch of road remains hazardous because of the broken up asphalt along the edge of the roadway.
Even where the crumbled asphalt has been bladed to the side, it still causes problems when vehicles have to pass one another. When meeting up with farm trucks, fuel delivery trucks, and other larger vehicles, extreme caution is required to prevent tire and vehicle damage.
According to those who use the road daily, sometimes vehicles are forced to come to a complete stop.
A 30-mile-per-hour speed limit has been placed on the road. Clemmer said drivers need to slow down, especially when passing another vehicle.
According to Robert Mueller, transportation director at Centre High School, the bus driver for the Tampa route bypassed the mile being worked on south of town each day by going around the section.
“Luckily, the weather has been dry,” he said.
The east stretch of road remains a concern. Mueller said every time the bus driver meets oncoming traffic, she has to get off to the edge of the road and almost come to a stop because the other driver might not slow down.
He noted that with wet weather the sides have become soft, requiring drivers to be extra careful.
“I’m hoping they’ll still do something about the shoulders,” he said.
Summerville said there are several roads in the Goessel area which also need to be redone, including 120th from K-15 to Indigo and 150th from K-15 to Indigo.
To put things in perspective, Summerville noted that Marion County, which has a lot of cropland, has 1,600 miles of country roads compared to 400 miles in Butler County, which has a lot of grassland.
Butler County has a property valuation of $2.3 billion, whereas Marion County’s valuation is $.4 billion.
“We are a large county with a small population,” he said.
Summerville also noted that in all the surrounding counties, townships are in charge of maintaining their own roads.
“It sure would take a load off my shoulders if the county went back to the township system,” he said.