More discussion of Town Line Road

The condition of Town Line Road is more controversial than we thought.  We are now re-posting an original "Ask Mr. Answer Person" question sent in by Max, along with Mr. Answer Person's answer; a rebuttal comment from decorahnews.com reader Nick and a second e-mail now from Max:

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 rained 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.

Nick, a decorahnews.com reader, responded to Max's question:

Hello Max, I would like to add some truth to your statement. First the company who used that road has a total of 140 trucks, which are only dump trucks and semis. Those 140 trucks are split over three different states. Also that company has several other jobs to be done and there is no way "at least 100 trucks" could be on that road. That would mean they would have to have at least 60 come from Missouri and Minnesota.

Now I know the truth and the truth is that no more than 15 trucks from the company were on that road at a time. Now the same trucks did use that rode several times. So get your facts straight before you say anything.

Secondly, that road was watered at least three times a day whenever those trucks used that road. So don't even say they didn't keep it maintained with water.

Now my last thing is that you need to go around some more roads in Winnesheik County because that is one of the better gravel roads in the entire county."

Max now has e-mailed a response to Nick's response:

Hello Nick, now I would like to add a little truth to your statement. First, when I said "100 trucks per day traveled that road," that surely didn't mean 100 different trucks traveled it per day.  However I, unlike you, live on that section of Town Line Road and know how much traffic travels on this road, and I know where they were hauling from.  On two of the days they were hauling down this stretch of road, I was home, and counted between 7-10 trucks per hour, hauling until roughly 6pm.
 
However the amount of trucks hauling on this road was not what my article was concerning, it was concerning the maintenance of the road, and of that I assure you it was NOT watered three times per day.  If it was, I doubt the company would have had to pay the costs of resurfacing. 

And lastly, I travel many gravel roads of this county, and I know there are roads in worse shape.  But I also know that this section of gravel is one of the most heavily traveled roads in the county, and that is why it should have been maintained better, while it was a haul road. Most of the year it is in well shape. And just so you know, those questions I asked, I already knew all the answers to. I was just voicing the opinion of many people.

Nick has sent a further reply:

Well next time rethink what you are typing. Also you can say the road was only watered once but I knew the truth to that do to the fact I know the guy that drove the Mack water truck personally. While Highway 52 was being pre-shouldered he spent his time in that water truck making more than 3 trips a day. Now to the fact the county has a lot of other roads that need care, I think that Lee Bjerke and his road maintenance crew are doing a amazing job keeping our gravel roads in drivable condition to get us from point a to b. I think the county will get to it when they can, so for now I think we can all deal with it. Unless you want to go spend $200,000 on a grader, another $50,000 on a water truck, $100,000 on a dump truck and plus the cost of the rock.