Benton County sets road plan for next year

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's Road Department will tackle a robust maintenance plan next year.

The goal is for about 54 miles of paved road improvements in 2019, according to a plan presented to the Finance Committee last week. Of that, 28.3 miles will be asphalt overlay and chip-and-seal paving work. Another 12.4 miles will be for crack sealing, and about 11.9 miles will be fog sealing.

Budget meetings

Benton County’s budget meeting will be held Tuesday in the Quorum Courtroom in the County Administration Building in Bentonville. Other budget meetings are set for Oct. 22, 23 and 29. A tentative budget meeting is scheduled for Nov. 5, but that could change. The meetings start at 5:30 p.m.

Source: Benton County

Road work terminology

Crack sealing is used to fill pavement cracks to prevent water entry. A fog seal is an application of a thin liquid oil to an asphalt pavement.

Source: Staff report

The county plans to hire a company to do pothole repair with a target of filling 900 potholes.

Hutchens Construction filled 900 potholes so far this year, and county crews pitched in to fill another 500, said Jay Frasier, administrator of public services who oversees the Road Department.

The 2018 plan called for 49 miles of road work, but that total will be surpassed before work slows in November, Frasier said.

"We have a five-man road crew," he said. "They keep that machine going. Only high water and bad weather slows them down. They do the work in a timely manner. Fifty miles is an accomplishment."

Improvements are planned for 15 dirt roads, totaling about 10 miles of improvements, according to the 2019 plan.

The county has more than 1,600 miles of road to maintain. Just more than half are paved.

Justice of the Peace Joel Jones said he likes the Road Department's "holistic approach" to maintaining roads.

"They have all the roads mapped," Jones said. "They have a plan in place. This is way better than if someone calls and complains, and they just go and pave the road."

The county is in the third year of a road assessment plan County Judge Barry Moehring asked for when he took office.

"It's very important we stick to the plan," Frasier said. "It's data driven -- traffic counts, emergency calls. And we sprinkle in other road work, too. We look at all the roads with a fine-tooth comb."

Most of the projects for next year are in District 1, which covers just more than 200 square miles and includes the Beaver Lake area.

"The plan for next year is good," said Mike McKenzie, District 1 justice of the peace. "The judge's focus on maintenance is good because so many of our roads need work. I get a lot of feedback on roads because we have so many in the district. But the feedback I get is they have done a really good job on the roads they have fixed."

Frasier admits District 1 can be a challenge when it comes to road work. A road yard in Garfield on the east side of the county is a huge help because crews can get to a scene fast, Frasier said.

"Some of the roads in that district are in critical shape," he said. "A lot of roads in the lake area need attention. It's not intentional that we stay on Mike's side, but that is how the list goes."

Two roads in District 1 that will get asphalt overlays are Black Oak and White Oak drives in the Lost Bridge area.

John Buhr is president of the Lost Bridge Village Property Owners Association and has lived at Lost Bridge for three years. He knew of the county's plans for the two roads and praised the Road Department for its work around the lake.

"The asphalt on both of those roads is aged," Buhr said. "We have some roads that are in poor condition, and some that are OK. Many of them have been here for a long time."

The 2019 plan shows only two new road construction projects -- one mile of work on Bloomfield North Road in the Gentry area and a one-eighth of a mile on Cloverdale Road near Rogers. Six-day traffic counts show 2,161 vehicles on Bloomfield North and 1,530 on Cloverdale Road, according to the county.

The Road Department has about $2.8 million in requests for vehicles and equipment next year but also projects receiving about $700,000 in revenue from the sale of older vehicles.

NW News on 10/14/2018

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