BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace got their first look Tuesday at what was pitched as a new way of developing the 2017 road work plan.
County Judge Barry Moehring and Jay Frasier, public services administrator, briefed the Transportation Committee on the work done last year and changes the planned for this year.
War Eagle Bridge
Benton County Judge Barry Moehring said the county is still waiting for state and federal approval of bid documents for work renovating War Eagle Bridge. Moehring said he hopes the bid documents will be approved some time this week.
Source: Staff report
"This is a hugely important part of our budget and of what we do," Moehring said.
Moehring said the county will proceed with a planned survey and assessment of the paved roads before developing a detailed list of projects. He estimated that could take 90 days. The county is negotiating with a company to do a video survey of all of the paved roads and a detailed assessment of their condition.
"We need to come up with a new methodology," Moehring said. "We need to do a much better job of coming up with a logic for why we're doing it. We're still developing what that plan is going to be for 2017."
Frasier said the Road Department is doing some work in advance of the survey, including cleaning roadside drainage ditches and installing reinforced concrete culvert. He said the department is working on a proposal requiring reinforced concrete culverts, which he said will last longer and be less subject to damage from both normal wear and severe weather.
The justices of the peace were particularly interested in the information the county plans to gather in the survey and in having it available to the justices of the peace and the public.
"This particular mode of learning what we have out there is another piece of information you and I and the citizens will have access to," Pat Adams, justice of the peace for District 6 and committee chairman, said during the meeting.
Joel Jones, justice of the peace for District 7, said the county needs to make more use of technology and to have the information more easily available.
"We have these tools available, but to my mind they're not being used," Jones said.
Frasier also told the justices of the peace the Road Department will be working on a parking lot at the Sheriff's Office. Frasier said the lot was damaged during the recent jail expansion and the plans for the expansion omitted any increase in parking area. He estimated the cost of repairing the lot and adding to it will be about $57,000.
The committee also heard a report from Robert McGowen, public safety administrator, about work being done to secure reimbursement for expenses incurred in repairing flood damage from two presidential disaster-level events, one in August 2013 and one in December 2015.
McGowen said the county has one project work order remaining from the 2013 flooding, for the replacement of the Corinth Road Bridge. For the 2015 flooding, he said, the county is waiting on federal approval for 96 out of 97 project work orders for repair work. McGowen said the work orders have all been submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and there's no timetable for their approval.
NW News on 02/01/2017