FAIRMONT — Martin County Road 26, often referred to as “Old 16,” is due for some much needed work.

The road is set to receive a bituminous overlay and added bituminous shoulders later this year, starting from Highway 15 in Fairmont and running east to the Faribault County line.

County Engineer Kevin Peyman had previously submitted an application for state aid via a Local Road Improvement Program, and it awarded Martin County $1 million for the project. However, the total cost is expected to run between $7 and $8 million. Peyman was able to go into the details behind the work that needs done, and just how the expensive project will be funded.

“It’s about 10 miles total,” he said. “The road is a full-depth pavement, meaning it doesn’t have any gravel under the bituminous section, which was a fairly common design in the ’80s and ’90s. It just makes it a little different for things you do to rehabilitate it.

“Because of the type, severity and frequency of cracks, along with the traffic volume, this project isn’t an ideal candidate for a standard 3-inch overlay. When you have these cracks that sort of cup like they do, it would be tough to do a regular overlay, which we do on our regular projects.”

Peyman noted that the project has been divided into three sections. Section A consists of the 1,300 feet from Highway 15 to just past Day Plumbing. The next stretch goes from that point to County Road 53, which covers about 4.7 miles, and the final section goes from Highway 53 to the Faribault County line.

“The first section will be just a standard 3-inch mill and overlay because with the curb and gutter it’s hard to change the elevation much, you need to match with driveways and such,” Peyman said. “With Section B out to 53, the top 2 inches of blacktop gets removed and hauled off site. The next 4 inches of bituminous is cold-in-place recycling, or CIR.”

According to information provided by Peyman, CIR is a process that grinds off the top of a bituminous roadway, crushes it, mixes it with an asphalt recycling agent, and then paves it on the same roadway using a paving “train” so that the material doesn’t need to be removed from a project site.

“So that provides a nice stable base, and then that section will get a nice 8-inch bituminous overlay due to the high traffic volume,” he said. “That will be the first 2 inches that gets milled off which is taken back to the plant, heated up, remixed and brought back out which will make it almost like a new road again.

Peyman stated that Section C will be done in the same manner, but with a 6-inch overlay as opposed to 8 inches, due to a lower traffic volume. Both sections B and C will get the first 4 feet of shoulders paved. As for a schedule, Peyman said that will be easier to determine once the contract is awarded.

“The contract should be awarded in late April, early May,” he said. “Once we know who the contractor is, we’ll have a lot firmer idea of what their schedule is. Part of this is because there’s a limited number of companies that do the cold-in-place recycling.

“Since there’s so few that do it, the schedule will be partly determined by how available their equipment is. It’s an expensive project for us, we don’t usually do it for 10 miles at a shot and we’re doing a lot thicker fix than just a 3-inch overlay.”

Beyond the $1 million that was awarded to the county, the rest of the project will be paid for using Martin County’s allotment from the Minnesota Highway Users Fund. The fund comes from state gas tax revenue, license fees and motor vehicle sales tax. The money is dedicated, and can only be spent on County State Aid Highway construction projects. Martin County’s construction allotment from the fund for 2018 is $4 million, so a large project like County Road 26 will take more than one year’s allotment.

Peyman pointed out that no property tax dollars will be spent on the project, and that local wheelage tax funds also will be used to help fund the addition of paved shoulders.