Supervisors hear update on upcoming state aid work

During Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors, County Engineer Les Dungan provided an update to the Supervisors on four projects that he recommended to initiate with funding.

Dungan said the projects would obligate about 75 to 80 percent of state aid funds available during this term for Pearl River County, but still keep some of the funds available in case of an emergency or unforeseen occurances. Dungan said the factors that determined these projects were due to an annual inspection ride-around with state aid officials, the age of the roads, and the last time the roads were surfaced. Dungan said he and County Road Manager Charile Schielder also looked at roads that incur the most traffic and the fact that some roads don’t hold up as well due to the way they were originally constructed.

The first project will require repairs on sites where Dungan said a “chip seal” (liquid asphalt) resurfacing. The sites, according to Dungan, include:

· the bridge on the north end of John Amacker Road which will also include new stripes and signs,

· the entire length of Progress- Silver Run Road,

· the north end of Springhill Road where the traffic count is low (the south end will be in another project according to Dungan),

· the entire route of Gum Pond Beall Road from Lamar County to Highway 26.

This project will require $1.6 million of state aid funds according to Dungan.

The second project will be the application of an ultra thin overlay on the south side of Springhill Road and the Oak Hill Forest Creek Road bridge.

Dungan gave details of the third project which would address ruts in the roads, base failure repaires, and other spot repairs on Ceasar Road, West Union Road, Rock Ranch Road, and Henleyfield-McNeill Road.

The fourth project would address the bridge on the north end of Pine Grove Road. Dungan said that due to the ongoing state bridge crisis, the county cannot used state aid funds on posted bridge on a state aid route unless the county has a program (plan) for replacing the posted bridge. The bridge was built in the 1930s as part of the WPA projects and according to Dungan, is only about 16 feet wide. Dungan said the existing bridge would be removed and replaced with a double cell box culvert.

All of these projects combined will require about $3.57 million of state aid funding according to Dungan.