County to move ahead with $2.7M road project

Federal and state funds were approved for use to complete a road reconstruction project in western Jasper County. The Jasper County Board of Supervisors gave the go ahead to a federal aid agreement on Tuesday to repave a portion of Highway F36, resulting in an estimated $2.7 million coming to the county in funding.

The 5.5 mile stretch of pavement, also known as the Ike’s road, is located west of Newton. Following a recent rating of county road conditions, F36 was found to be one of the worst.

“It has been getting in really bad shape lately,” Jasper County Engineer Russ Stutt said. “It is breaking up and we’ve been doing excessive patching in areas.”

Work, including a 7-inch deep concrete overlay, and eligible activities such as construction, engineering, inspection and right-of-way acquisitions will be completed following a bidding process conducted by the Iowa Department of Transportation. Stutt said the DOT will lead the project, which is slated to be completed in 2017.

“We’re hoping it will be early this summer but the bidding process still needs to be completed,” Stutt said.

The estimated $2.7 million price tag will be paid for using federal aid through the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program and state farm and market funds in a 80 percent to 20 percent ratio. The STP federal funds are available for construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, resurfacing, restoration and operational or safety improvement projects on federal-aid highways, bridges on any public road and several other types of projects.

“All of it comes out of state and federal funding, nothing runs through the county’s budget,” assistant to the engineer Pam Olson said.

In other business:

• Carol Kramer was reappointed as a member of the Jasper County Conservation Board.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at
641-792-3121 ext. 6534
or jpierson@newtondailynews.com