Tour provides insight into county roads and bridges
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FAIRMONT-- A tour of various county roads was taken on Friday afternoon by the Martin County Board of Commissioners. The tour, which made a few stops at county bridges, was led by County Engineer, Kevin Peyman.
"I wanted them to see the bigger construction projects for this year and then I also wanted them to see our main paving projects for next year," Peyman said.
After he laid those out on a map, he picked a few stops that made sense in between.
Throughout the tour the commissioners saw construction updates at CSAH 50, a paving project by Truman that started last year and finished up this spring, and CSAH 53, from East Chain up to old 16, which recently wrapped up.
"Just north of that up into Granada they did the milling this week and will be paving next week," Peyman said.
The group also checked out old 263, which has been turned back to CSAH 27, where Peyman talked about some of the cleanup work that was done to fix issues leftover from the turn back.
There was a stop at the CSAH 9 bridge and the Fox Lake Township bridge, both of which were done this summer and are now wrapping up.
"I talked about the process, how they build a bridge and what it costs so they can picture what a million dollar bridge looks like when they see it," Peyman explained.
A project slated for 2027, CSAH 13, from Sherburn leading south 6 miles, was also highlighted as it will be the main paving project for next year.
"If we try to do these tours every year, it'd be nice to do them the year before so they can see the pre-construction condition and then the next year we can drive it again and they can hopefully see it after it's done," Peyman said.
CSAH 22, also scheduled for 2027, connects with CSAH 13 and goes over to CSAH 27 (old 263). Peyman said it was a nice one to point out because with the county's old funding sources, only CSAH 13 would be able to be done next year, but with the new transportation sales and use tax that went into effect in the last year, there will be money to do both.
"It was a good example to see what the road looks like because if we hadn't done the sales tax, it would need to sit there like that for another year or two. With the sales tax we're able to do it at the same time as 13 and save some money since they're so close together," Peyman said.
Commissioner Jaime Bleess agreed that that was a highlight of the tour for him.
"It was exciting to see the improvements we've been making on our county roads and bridges, specifically with our local option sales tax funds and wheelage tax funds and learning how those funds directly impact our ability to get projects done on a regular CIP schedule," Bleess said.
Reflecting back on the tour, Peyman said that instead of the commissioners hearing him describe the projects at a board member, they can now understand more details after seeing them for themselves.
Tours like this have been done in the past though Peyman said they look different every year.
"Not every year, but I would say it started a long time ago when we we'd go to look at tax forfeiture properties," Peyman explained.
Last year the commissioners went on a tour of county-owned buildings to see for themselves the condition they're in.
"It seemed well-received by the board. They seemed to like looking at the projects in person," Peyman said.