It’s been a rough winter for many people. One of the hardest hit areas has been in rural Wabash County where residents and road district commissioners have had to deal with the up and down temperature extremes and their corresponding toll on roads.
A 5-ton load limit is in effect for Wabash County roads until April 5th. That has prevented heavy vehicles such as garbage trucks from using the county roads. In turn, many out in the county have gone without trash pickup for several weeks and they’ve been told it may be April before the service resumes. Dumpsters have been set up in Allendale and Bellmont for residents to take their trash. But that has done little to ease their frustrations.
For their part, the road commissioners we’ve talked to are simply trying to protect their soft roads from being torn up, in turn costing taxpayers more to repair this Spring. A portion of 840 road reopened to most traffic Thursday after repairs were made from ruts being caused by a large vehicle. Road Commissioner Tim Glick said school buses are still banned from using that road until further notice.
Wabash County highway engineer Dustin Bunting says this winter isn’t a whole lot different than others. He said the freeze/thaw cycle along with a hard rain was out of the ordinary compared to years in which it freezes for long stretches.
If a road is damaged by large trucks driving on the soft surface, it doesn’t take long for it to rack up some serious costs. According to Bunting, it costs $25,000 a mile to reshape and replace rock on a gravel road; $35,000 a mile to restore an oil and chip road; and $475,000 a mile to reconstruct an asphalt road which are the striped roads in the county.
As far as garbage trucks, Bunting said they weigh 17 tons when empty, well above the posted 10 ton limit on county roads and the 5 ton limit on road district roads. If it gets cold enough, Bunting said the limits will be lifted if the ground is frozen. For the most part, the striped roads are always open unless conditions are extremely soft.
At tonight's county board meeting, Bunting said the cold weather this week has caused the load limit on county roads to be lifted for the time being. He said that will be re-evaluated on Friday. You can always call the highway department office to check the status of the load limits.
