Road treatment alternative presented for county roads

Several dozen people turned out to talk about county roads and possible solutions to dust and stabilization issues during a Tuesday meeting. Jasper County Supervisor Doug Cupples hosted the gathering at the Jasper County Community Center to get public feedback and present Midwest Industrial Supply’s abilities to address road problems.

“I had been on the job for three weeks and everything melted, along with my phone,” Cupples said. “I would wake up thinking about gravel roads.”

With county roads a major issue he was hearing about on a regular basis, Cupples said he started to look outside of the box to see if there were any possible solutions for the deteriorating roads the county wasn’t already pursuing.

In his research, he found the company Midwest Industrial Supply, a manufacturer of Earth-conscious solutions to overcome dust, erosion, ice or unstable soil conditions, and invited them to Jasper County.

Western Regional Manager Frank Elswick, a 25-year veteran of the industry, was on hand at the meeting to present Midwest’s capabilities, show samples of treated roadways and answer questions from county residents.

“We have a vast array of experience dealing with a lot of different types of situations and a lot of different types of soils,” Elswick said.

The Canton, Ohio-based company offers several services including dust control and soil stabilization. For dust control, according to Midwest, it’s product is safe, reliable and effective and has been rigorously tested and certified by independent agencies including the US EPA Environmental Verification Program and the Canadian Environmental Verification Program. Midwest has served steel mills, pipes yards, mines, quarries and municipalities with dust problems.

To address soil stabilization, Midwest has GreenPave and natural paving technologies which come in a variety of road stabilization applications. GreenPave uses alternative binders to engineer sustainable durable pavement out of native soils.

The applications can be used on paved roads that will remain unsurfaced to roads that will receive running surface treatments. Roadbed stabilization treatments include native roadbed soils, old gravel roads or recycled roadway surface materials.

While no firm plan was laid out for using any Midwest products in Jasper County, many of those present expressed their thanks to Cupples for working to address road issues in the county and were excited about the possibility the products could bring. Cupples said he will continue to work with Midwest to see if their product is viable for county roads through sampling and testing various sections in the county.

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