Quarry gives county hefty credit for gravel

Frankin County will get a big refund. About 400 tons’ worth.

A quarry east of Ottawa will give the county a credit for that much gravel, Jim Haag, county public works director, told Franklin County Commissioners Wednesday.

During recent road work, the wrong kind of material was loaded onto several county trucks and it was dumped on roads around Richmond.

The material, a powdery rock dust, is as hard as concrete when it’s dry but whenever it’s wet, it turns into slippery but sticky goo. Shortly after it was applied to three roads around Richmond, it rained more than a inch, turning the roads slippery and generating complaints from motorists caught on the roads.

The material was pushed to the side of the roads.

According to a county memo, the proper gravel will be put on the roads and the rock powder will be mixed with the gravel.

In another road-related matter, the commissioners named Commission Chairwoman Sue Farrell, Haag and County Administrator Lisa Johnson to a special committee that will consider an engineering consultant for the 13-Mile County Highway Improvement Program project.

Because of county budget constraints, commissioners trimmed the 13-Mile project to slightly more than five miles, mostly involving Montana Road, north of the new U.S. 59.

As it was originally proposed, the project would have paved Montana Road (which is Davis Avenue in Ottawa) from Reno Road to Shawnee Road, then along Shawnee Road to Ohio Road, which is also known as the Baldwin City Road; Stafford Road between Missouri Road and Montana Road; and Marshall Road (which is 15th Street in Ottawa) from Nevada Terrace to Oregon Road, and then Oregon Road to Rock Creek Road.

When it put the project up for bid, the county received only one bidder, Killough Construction, Ottawa, which bid slightly more than $4.98 million for the entire project.