Starke County officials hope to leverage money from the state to improve the county’s road infrastructure. Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler is working on a long-term truck route proposal, under which all routes in the county would be within a mile of a highway or hot mix road.
Of the 700 miles of county-maintained roads, Ritzler says only 13 are currently paved with hot mix.
“Most of them are chip sealed roads, which is the original gravel roads with two or three layers of chip seal on top of them, probably 400 miles of that,” he told the county council and commissioners last week. “We also use cold mix asphalt. We make that ourselves. The problem with that is it’s porous, and water gets to it. It can break down the roads, which means you have to chip seal it soon afterwards. It’s not as strong as hot mix.”
Ritzler adds hot mix roads are more expensive but last a lot longer, especially in rural areas with less traffic. He says a good hot mix road can last between 30 and 40 years before it needs to be redone if it is properly maintained.
Hot mix roads typically average between $100-and-$125,000 per mile. Ritzler hopes to bring that cost down significantly by working with local contractors and suppliers.
“I think we can reduce the cost to about $75,000 per mile, in conjunction with the 4-to-1 money we’re getting from the state, really that’s the reason we can do these hot mix routes and really improve the infrastructure of the county that way.”
Ritzler will present the long-term truck route plan to county officials in April in hopes of securing a local funding commitment to add 100 miles of hot mix roads over a 15-year period. Additional local money for road construction will be available after the final handful of bridge replacements are completed.
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