The Pipestone County Highway Department will be making at least $1,722,016 worth of repairs and improvements to the county’s roads and bridges this summer, with additional projects possible if funding becomes available.
The biggest of the projects taking place this summer is the six-mile County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 15 reconstruction project from Cazenovia to the Ward Road. The project is set to begin mid-July and should be finished by the end of September. The reconstruction will cost $1,246,221 this year and an estimated $1 million for surfacing in 2010.
In conjunction with that project, there will be a widening of a curve further north on CSAH 15 near the Pipestone and Lincoln County border. That project will cost $117,276 and an estimated $100,000 to surface in 2010.
Reconstruction of a one-third mile section of CSAH 17 north of Edgerton will begin around August 1 and should be completed by the beginning of September. That project will cost $148,519 this year and an estimated $250,000 to resurface next year. Because it is a small section of road the Highway Department plans to do most of the work itself, according to David Halbersma, highway engineer.
“We’re hoping to be done before school starts,” he said.
The final project scheduled for this summer, which opens for bids June 2, is a box culvert replacement on County Bridge #1448, one mile north of the Rock County line and a short distance west of Highway 75. That project, estimated to cost $210,000, can start no earlier than August 15 with a finish date no later than November 15.
The contractor must wait until after August 15, Halbersma said, due to the spawning season of the endangered Topeka Shiner minnow.
“We just give them a big window of time to do it,” Halbersma said. “Once they start they’ve got ten days to get it done.”
He said there is also a chance of four additional bridge projects that are ready to begin should state funding become available and two additional culvert projects that are planned for 2010, but could begin this year if funds are made available.
Those projects, Halbersma said, could be called the “wishful thinking” projects.
“With the state budget problems, I’m not real hopeful,” he said.
