By Jill Fennema –

Last week Tuesday, Pipestone County held its annual road and bridge hearing. This is an annual meeting where the highway department reviews what the county and state construction plans are for the next five years and asks for public input on the plan. If you did not make it to the public hearing, but want to see the five-year plan, it can be found on the Pipestone County website.

Of interest to Edgerton readers is that CSAH 9 in Edgerton (from 60th Ave. on the west side to CSAH 18 on the east side) will be milled and repaved with asphalt this year. There will also be box culvert work done in the area north of Edgerton at four different sites. That work will be done in either 2021 or 2022. The county will be letting bids on those projects soon.

There are several road overlays and bridge replacement projects scheduled for 2022 and 2023, but none of those are in the southeast corner of the county.

At the road and bridge meeting a year ago, some rural residents requested that there be work done to CSAH 17, where it gets washboards and soft spots, especially this time of year. There were comments related to this same type of request this year as well. According to the five-year plan, CSAH 17 is currently scheduled for a large-scale gravel and tile project in 2024.

This road has often been discussed at the annual road and bridge meeting. It was mentioned that if this road was to be improved using only local funding, the county could implement a local sales tax to pay for this project. Pipestone County Highway Engineer Nick Bergman said that in between now and that large scale project, the county will continue to do annual maintenance on the road.

A couple of people who attended the meeting requested that the county put more gravel on the roads in general. Bergman explained that the flooding from the last few years put the highway department pretty far behind on their maintenance graveling, but they are considering hiring private contractors to haul some gravel for them.

State Highway 23 north of Pipestone is scheduled to be resurfaced in 2024, and a bridge will be replaced on Hwy. 30, three and a half miles west of the Murray County line.

Bergman reported that there could possibly be funding available to combine the two curves east of Edgerton into one curve. Currently, there are two separate curves joined by a straight segment, which is something the state calls a “broke back curve.” These curves can be a safety concern, so this section of road could be a good candidate for a grant.

Pipestone County spent $4.7 million on construction costs in 2020. Those funds came from four state funds: county state aid, state bridge bonding grant, township bridge fund, and special township bridge fund.

In 2021, the county received $3,842,618 in funding, which was down from the $4,119,168 they received in 2020. Due in part to COVID-19, there was less traveling this past year, which meant less gasoline was sold throughout the state. Some of the county’s funding for roads comes from the gas tax, so their funding decreased.

The county also uses wheelage tax to pay for road, culvert, and bridge work. One of the items it was used on in 2020 was the Indian Lakes project on the north edge of Pipestone. In the future, wheelage tax money might be used to supplement the state aid allotment.

The county is looking at ways to increase funding for roads. One way would be to increase the wheelage tax from $15 to $20 per vehicle. An increase in wheelage tax would also be considered if there are more electric cars on the road, as these types of vehicles would not be using gas and their owners would not be paying gas tax.

There was no discussion of these options at the hearing, but the county board could entertain these ideas in the future.

Local spring road postings went into effect on March 4. You can find a spring weight restrictions map on the county website under the highway department tab.

Pipestone County will cost-participate 50 percent, up to $250, for dust control on county-maintained gravel roadways. Dust control (calcium chloride or magnesium chloride) can be used at farmsteads for a maximum linear footage of 500 feet as long as that road has an Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) count of greater than 150. That determination is made by MnDOT or the county highway department.

Residents must initially pay for the application and then submit their invoice to the highway department for reimbursement. Cost participation will be limited to the cost of the material only if chloride flakes or pellets are used or the cost of material and application if liquid chloride is used and if applied by a vendor or supplier.

Residents that wish to request reimbursement through this program must check with the highway department prior to ordering the dust control material in order to ensure the roadway qualifies for the cost participation.