Ask Mr. Answer Person: "When will Town Line Road be paved?

Max e-mails Mr. Answer Person: "Do you have any idea when Town Line Road between Highway 52 and Middle Calmar Road is going to be paved?  I seem to remember it was supposed to be done.  And I thought the county was supposed to maintain the road when it's used as a "haul road."  There were at least 100 trucks per day traveling over the road for a 1- or 2-week time period and it was maintained (sprayed down with water) only once during that period.  When it did have gravel laid down on it, after it raine,d it was almost impassable!  The wash-boarding is so bad that a person can';t even stop at the stop signs at either end and it really is a hazard for anyone who doesn't know the road.  Something has to be done."

Mr. Answer Person says: "You have several questions, so let's take them in order.

As for when Town Line Road is going to be paved, the answer is it won't be--at least not for awhile.  Winneshiek County currently doesn't have enough money to pay for maintaining the roads and bridges it has now--so it's not going to tackle any new paving jobs.  Period.

You're right that a number of years ago Town Line Road was on the list of roads to be improved, but Town Line Road was removed from the list a few years ago--and then the whole list was cancelled.

As for maintaining roads that are get traffic from construction crews working on a road project, you're right that Town Line Road was such a "haul road."  But it's the road contractor who's responsible.  Since the road contractor on the previous project that used Town Line Road didn't do a good enough job fixing up Town Line Road after the heavy equipment traffic, the contractor paid the costs to resurface the road in gravel.