Staff writer
A portion of 190th Rd. next to a bend in the South Cottonwood River has eroded so much from floods the guardrail is falling and the county must now decide what to do about it.
County commissioners, road and bridge superintendent Jesse Hamm, and Larry Cushinberry took a Monday morning tour of the portion of road to check out its condition.
The erosion has become worse since the section was last worked on four to six years ago, commissioner Randy Dallke said.
At that time, the area west of the first electric pole was the focus. While that section has held up, a section east of the river bend has eroded to the point something must be done.
Dallke said the road might need to be rerouted.
Back at the courthouse, commissioners talked to Bruce Boettcher, of BG Consultants, about how bad the section of road has become.
“I guess what we need to do is go inspect it after every rain,” Dallke said.
Among possible solutions are rerouting the road, repairing the existing road, or closing off that portion.
Dallke questioned whether the county should spend money to fix it if estimates come in high.
“I guess that’s an option to let the county vote whether they want to spend money on this thing,” Dallke said.
Holub said he’s sure a proper repair “would be in 6 digits.”
“I just hate to spend that kind of money and some day have to do it again,” Holub said.
Boettcher said his company would try to get some kind of estimation whether a total repair would need to be done again, and look to see what would work best.
“I would like to see what they think would work,” Holub said.