Logan County Board
March Road and Bridge

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[July 17, 2015]  LINCOLN - Logan County Safety Complex March 2, 2015

Present: Bob Farmer; Dave Hepler; Rick Aylesworth; David Blankenship; Gene Rohlfs; Chuck Ruben; Scott Schaffenacker
Absent:
Guests: Bret Aukamp; Curt Fox

Mr. Farmer called the meeting to order at 7:40 pm.

A motion was made by Mr. Rohlfs, seconded by Mr. Ruben, to approve the minutes from the February 2, 2015. Motion passed.

The list of claims for payments was reviewed. A motion was made by Mr. Ruben, seconded by Mr. Blankenship, to approve the list of claims for payment. Motion passed.

Monthly report on current maintenance and construction:
Mr. Aukamp reported Logan County had a few snow events this past month. For yesterday’s snowfall, the crew worked a full day to get the roads mostly clear by mid-afternoon. The trucks were out again this morning to address the remaining slick spots. Good sunshine and temperatures helped to get the roads clear. Tonight’s freezing rain is expected to be about a tenth of an inch. The rain is expected to continue throughout tomorrow. By mid-morning, the temperatures are expected to rise and melt any overnight ice accumulation. Mr. Aukamp is not expecting to send out trucks in the morning since the rain will be continuous.
 


Mr. Blankenship and Mr. Aukamp met with representatives from the Viper Mine earlier this month. They have agreed to re-route some of their trucks during snow events if Mr. Aukamp is able to give them enough notice. This has helped with 2 snow events so far, where crews have been able to peel off more snow before it becomes packed down and difficult to remove.

The aging fleet has been performing fairly well, without any major breakdowns - until yesterday. The oldest snowplow truck is a 1993. The chassis has become worn enough that Mr. Aukamp is finding areas where things rub together. As the truck was finishing the route yesterday, the plow caught on a bridge abutment, causing a jolt to the truck. That was enough to cause the fan blade to rub against the radiator, and antifreeze to begin pouring out. Luckily it happened about 2 miles from the township shed where they park the truck. A new radiator will cost around $1,000. Ironically, that is about the value of the truck.

The crew is continuing to install new warning and regulatory signs. The crew is now down to the last 20 miles of County Highway. Even with the frozen ground, the electric jackhammer is able to drive anchor posts. The cold weather has slowed them down, but they are still being productive. And, this is much safer than hammering the anchor posts in with a sledge hammer.

Construction Report:
There are no active construction projects at this time.

Engineering Report:
Mr. Aukamp reported as the crew has been finishing up the replacement of the warning and regulatory signs, they are now focusing on the various guide signs that are on County Highways. Because they are now using much stronger steel posts to mount signs, crews are able to mount multiple signs on a single post. Whenever possible, Mr. Aukamp has been trying to identify places to consolidate signs, and reduce the number of sign posts making it easier to mow roadsides. Many of the green guide signs are old and no longer reflective, so they will be replaced as part of this process. This project will be slow since many of the green guide signs have to be custom made for each location.
 


Mr. Aukamp attended classes this month to renew his pesticide license. This allows the Highway Department to continue its herbicide program along guardrail areas. Over the past few years since crews have begun spraying guardrail, they have been able to control most of the woody vegetation and large weeds that reduce visibility around our bridges. Guardrail areas are looking much better now than they used to.

Mr. Aukamp reported he is continuing to work with the High Speed Rail project, reviewing plans and providing our input.

Mr. Aukamp will be attending a meeting later this week hosted by the Illinois Soybean Association. They are in the midst of an outreach effort to find ways to improve the transportation infrastructure in the state of Illinois. The group obviously has their own goals in mind, but those goals seem to overlap with ours when it comes to improving rural roads and bridges.

Transportation funding is being talked about at many different political levels. There is a majority in the House that supports a “long-term sustainable revenue source” for surface transportation. A majority of both House caucuses have signed on. The Senate is also showing support for infrastructure through the Environment & Public Works Committee. Congress will hopefully pass a transportation bill which is currently set to expire on May 31st.

Closer to home, Governor Rauner has indicated that infrastructure is one of his priorities, giving it one of the few increases in his proposed budget. At both levels, it is still unclear how any new construction programs would be funded.

The seasonal weight limits are still in effect until April 20th. For the past few weeks, the roads have been frozen enough to support hauling. Looking into next week’s forecasted temperatures, it is likely that the roadways and soils will begin to thaw. The freezing and thawing is a critical time for roadways. Any heavy loading during this time can cause damage, especially on those roads without a good pavement structure (which is nearly every local road in Logan County). Mr. Aukamp’s office has developed a lot of cooperation from the hauling community over the years. But there are some repeat offenders that do not seem to care about damaging the public roads. The sheriff’s office has been helpful when contacted about specific problems, but Mr. Aukamp would appreciate having a more proactive stance from the Board and from law enforcement. Since the county does not have the money to fix these roads, the most cost effective way that the county can preserve them is to prohibit truck traffic when the roads are soft.

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Old Business:

Bridge Inspections:

Mr. Aukamp is still trying to make follow-up inspections to several of the bridges that were inspected in January. Mr. Aukamp has been able to compile all of the comments, and is making summaries for each of the townships so that they can better understand the conditions of their bridges. The inspection forms have been submitted to IDOT and have been entered into the master database that tracks the conditions of all the bridges in the state of Illinois. IDOT has already made site visits to the bridges which have gotten significantly worse since the previous inspection. Mr. Aukamp expects to have new load ratings for each of those structures in the near future. The new load ratings will determine if any of the bridges will need weight limit postings. The information is also very helpful in prioritizing future projects. Mr. Aukamp hopes to have a report to the Committee next month.

Resurfacing project on County Highway 9 (Primm Road):
Mr. Aukamp reported this project has been included on the March 6th IDOT letting. Mr. Aukamp should have some information before the March Board meeting. Because the project involves federal funds, it is included with the IDOT letting. IDOT will review the bids and will award the project, so there will be no action needed from the County Board at this time.

New Business:

Township MFT Contract for Bituminous Materials:

Mr. Aukamp reported four of the townships are interested in contracting out their sealcoat work for the coming year. Most of the townships still work with the Highway Department crew to do the sealcoat work. The sealcoat work for these four townships would be done entirely by the contractor. Mr. Aukamp has held this kind of letting for the past several years and it does provide another option for the townships to maintain their roads. Mr. Aukamp is still planning to have typical oil letting for sealcoat work next month, which would include the remaining townships, many of the villages, and the County. A motion was made by Mr. Ruben, seconded by Mr. Rohlfs, to award 2015 Township MFT contract for Bituminous Materials (furnished & applied) to the lowest responsible bidder. Letting scheduled for March 10th at 10a.m. Motion passed.

Overweight/Oversize permit policy:
Mr. Aukamp reported the Road & Bridge Committee reviewed seasonal weight limits a few years ago, and passed the ordinance in October, 2013. The ordinance raised the empty weight of a semi-truck to 16 tons. The committee also included several exemptions like emergency vehicles, fuel trucks, and livestock feed trucks. At that time, Mr. Aukamp updated the Overweight/Oversize Permit Policy with the new information but he forgot to include the exempted vehicles. The revised Permit Policy includes an inserted paragraph that describes those exempted vehicles. All other information remains the same. A motion was made by Mr. Aylesworth, seconded by Mr. Schaffenacker, to approve these changes. Motion passed.

Ameren transmission line project:
Mr. Aukamp reported Ameren is planning to replace a 15 mile section of their transmission line between Latham and the new Fogarty substation. They are hoping to start their project by the middle of March, with much of the work occurring from March through May. The project would involve 100+ pieces of equipment, as well as the various poles and hardware needed to install the new wooden H-frame poles. Much of this work would occur during seasonal weight limits when the road is most vulnerable to damage. Mr. Aukamp was notified of this project last September, but heard nothing more about it until 2 weeks ago. Last Friday, Mr. Aukamp met with representatives from Ameren and the 3 affected townships to discuss road use agreements. Mr. Aukamp provided examples that Ameren has used with many other counties for similar projects. Ameren verbally agreed to use that as a framework to develop a road use agreement for Logan County. But, at 3pm this afternoon, Mr. Aukamp received their draft agreement that was 2 pages long and severely lacking in the details that were discussed on Friday. Mr. Aukamp would strongly recommend that this Committee take no action on this road use agreement with Ameren. If Ameren is able to provide an agreement worthy of this Board’s consideration, Mr. Aukamp will be happy to review it and bring it before the Board for approval. This might come before the Board this month, but Mr. Aukamp is currently very far apart on expectations. Ameren has created a very tight timeframe for themselves.

Improvements to CH 3 (San Jose Road and CH 16 (Delavan Road):
Mr. Aukamp met with the Mason County Engineer last week to discuss improvements on the road north of San Jose (CH 3). This road straddles the border between Logan and Mason counties. Mr. Aukamp has another meeting with a contractor later this week to discuss the suitability of this road for cold-in-place recycling. Mr. Aukamp hopes to make some design decisions soon in order to get these roads improved in 2015.

Report on County Aid project:
Mr. Aukamp reported Goodman’s Excavation finished the project in Corwin Township. Goodman’s Excavation replaced a culvert. The committee approved this agreement in October, 2014. The cost was $26,163.80 and the county’s cost is $13,081.90.

Quarterly Project Status report:
Mr. Aukamp presented the committee with a quarterly project report.

A motion was made by Mr. Ruben seconded by Mr. Aylesworth, to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed. Meeting ended at 8:15 pm.

[Copied from Logan County website]

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