The Pike Lake Road, along with several other county roads, is still in bad condition after a long winter, and residents are wondering when the Cook County Highway Department will get it back into shape.
“We keep trying,” Maintenance Supervisor Russell Klegstad told the county board on June 28, “and we keep hurting it.” Some of the county’s dirt roads have a clay base and were never built properly, he said. Others don’t have the proper surface, and gravel is in short supply. “We’re way short of material for our roads,” he said.
Winter still has a grip on the roads as well. The crew had hit frost in the ground a few days before while digging up the Gunflint Trail, Klegstad said, and frost makes roads as pliable as Silly Putty. Calcium chloride won’t be applied to stabilize the Pike Lake Road and keep dust down until the crew can lay down some gravel and fix the road.
Long summer, long winter
Last year was a busy year for the Cook County Highway Department. In an annual report to the county board, Klegstad said the summer of 2010 came early and allowed them to get a lot of work done, and then this last winter brought snow every weekend except for two from November 13 until spring.
A maintenance worker position was added and some plowing routes were reconfigured, bringing snow removal service to some people hours earlier than before. A new skid steer has helped the department get more work done. “That thing gets used constantly,” Klegstad said. “I don’t know how we ever survived without it.” The gas mileage on two new Mack trucks is far better than on the trucks they replaced.
Highway Engineer David Betts lauded the two new maintenance workers, Dan Berglund and Clark Bloomquist, saying they are both excellent employees.
Betts said the department would continue with the projects it planned for this summer despite the effects of the state government shutdown. The state provides inspection services for county road projects, and some of the contracted jobs are financed from state dollars. The county must still honor its contracts, however, and will not shut them down. “It goes against my grain to pay a contractor to do nothing,” Betts said.
The Highway Department is responsible for just short of 296 miles of road. With a 2011 budget of $6,345,162 (including federal and state dollars along with local taxes), that amounts to spending about $21,445 per mile or $4.06 per foot.
Facility study and master site plan
The board voted to hire the team of Oertel Architects and Albertson Engineering to conduct a Highway Department facility study and master site plan.
Out of five proposals, two stood out to a selection committee that included staff members and commissioners Fritz Sobanja and Bruce Martinson. The other proposal was submitted by a collaborative team comprised of DSGW Architects; Orb Management; Foster, Jacobs & Johnson; and Northland Consulting Engineers. A memo from Highway Engineer David Betts said, “Oertel’s vast experience in public works facilities and its extremely positive references were the main reasons that they stood out above DSGW.”
Commissioner Martinson said Oertel emphasized the importance of coming up with a good site design. The committee threw out the high and low bids, he said. Commissioner Sobanja said the three middle cost quotes were similar.
Preparing for winter
In preparation for another busy winter, commissioners followed County Highway Engineer David Betts’ recommendation on June 21 to accept the low bid for 2,500 yards of blended sand/salt for next winter from Edwin E. Thoreson, Inc. The low bid was for $24.51 per cubic yard, with a charge of $19 per cubic yard over the 2,500 yards.
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