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 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] |
