The Starke County Highway Department will be busy throughout the summer making improvements to 145 miles of county roads. Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler says the projects are based on the PASER, or Pavement, Surface, Evaluation and Rating, system and average daily traffic.
“All of the townships are well-represented on the list,” Ritzler told the county commissioners. “The San Pierre area now has the most roads. Most of the roads we added we’re adding in that area because they had the lowest PASER ratings and were a little under-represented on the previous list, and now we’ve put those on there. We’re probably going to chip-seal all of the roads in town and probably a couple of the roads out west of there.”
President of the Commissioners Jennifer Davis says she’s glad there’s a rationale behind how repairs are made. She notes this is the first time since she’s been a commissioner that rationale has been offered in support of the road repair decisions.
Ritzler says the highway department also gave considerations to roads near schools and businesses, as they want to make sure both remain in good shape. No specific timeline has been set for the work, as it is largely weather dependent. Ritzler hopes to start some projects by the end of June and continue through the summer. For a list of projects, click Starke County Highway Department 2014 Road Projects
