Phase two of Yellowwood Road project under way
Tree clearing for phase two of the Yellowwood Road project is expected to be completed by April to avoid the bat habitat season, Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner reported to the Brown County Commissioners on March 21.
“About 90 percent of all of the major trees are already down and on the ground. They have a couple of mulch mountains where they ground up all of the little stuff. It’s starting to look entirely different. They are progressing well on that,” Magner said.
Commissioner Diana Biddle said she was aware of one person who was not happy with the way the area looks.
“It does look like a war zone right now just because they dropped all the trees and drug them around. The ground has been soft,” Magner said.
“As soon as they start doing the final grading and get rid of all of this mess, you know, get the logs out, get the stumps pulled and move their mulch piles, then they will actually start doing some road bit grading. It will look entirely different.”
The second phase includes “realigning” the road so it doesn’t cut so close to the creek, and putting in culverts where vehicles now have to drive through seasonal creeks.
He said the creeks will look “western” after large boulders are placed in them.
“It will look entirely different once they are finished. Then it will eliminate a lot of our headaches, because we’ll get rid of the low water crossings with the new structures, so we don’t have those freezing up in the wintertime anymore or flooding out,” he said.
Pavement rehab on the south end of the project, near State Road 46 West and Knight’s Corner, will begin around May 1, he said. Crews will have two weeks to do a full-depth reclamation and repave the area from State Road 46 West to the north side of Duncan Church.
Highway department reports on supplies, equipment
Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner reported to the commissioners that he was still looking to buy a second mowing tractor for his department. He said there’s still money in his budget to cover it.
From Jan. 1 to March 21, the highway department had spent $364,000 to remove snow and ice from county roads. That price tag includes purchases of sand, salt, stone for gravel roads, fuel and basic labor costs.
“Anybody who wonders why we’re not out there doing more, it’s very expensive. Luckily, we’re still within budget,” Magner said.
From March 20 to 21, the department used 300 tons of material to remove spring snow. But Magner said his department still has salt available under this year’s budget that they haven’t purchased yet.
“By the time the winter operations are done, we’ll be at a minimum of 15 percent of our total budget that will go toward just snow and ice removal,” he said.
