County gets innovative with five-year construction plan

    COUNTY – Shelby County has signed off on its five-year secondary roads construction plan that includes some innovative solutions to bridge, culvert, and other road-related projects.
    Among the most cutting-edge answers is happening now, where old railroad tank cars are re-purposed to use for secondary road culvert projects.  Not only do they hold up well, but they are more financially appealing as well, said Shelby County Engineer Brandon Burmeister.
    “We are constantly looking for new ways to innovate and save money,” he said.  
    “Large-sized culverts are very expensive.  The railroad tank shell culvert idea actually came to us out of luck.”
    Burmeister said he got a random fax one day about the tank shell culverts in various sizes, lengths, and thicknesses from a company.
    “We had an embargoed bridge on our five-year plan that was going to require a 102-inch diameter culvert, so we called them up and ended up purchasing one,” Burmeister said.    
    The tank shell was 7/8-inch thick and weighed 38,000 pounds, which made it challenging to handle.  
    “So picking them up, moving them, and placing them takes planning,” he said, but the first one has worked tremendously.  “We have purchased a second tank shell culvert that we plan to replace another embargoed structure with this year.”

Five-year plan
    The Shelby County Secondary Road Department develops and updates its five-year construction plan annually.  It’s important to have goals to complete in the coming years and to be able to provide a schedule of when a proposed project may happen, said Burmeister.
    “Creating a five-year plan and budget also allows us to prioritize projects and ensure we are able to deliver them within our budgetary constraints,” he said.
    Overall, the Shelby County road system has 960 total miles of roadway and 190 bridges.
    “There is always work to be done and we do our best to try and balance our level of funding with the work that needs done,” Burmeister said.
    Every year the department lets pavement markings on all paved roads.  The opposite year they try to let a larger pavement maintenance project to try and save existing roads.
    Large road projects are scheduled every three-five years, as they take large amounts of money and planning to complete.
    “In-house, our bridge crew completes anywhere from three-five bridges per year,” Burmeister said.  “Our road crew does a good job of performing maintenance to pavements while also balancing grading and rocking 650 miles of gravel roads and grading 160 miles of dirt roads.”

 

 
 

 

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