Commission to select priority transit projects

By Buck Collier, Special Correspondent
Posted 11/9/22

HERMANN —   The Gasconade County Commission tomorrow is scheduled to select the top transportation projects in the county to be considered for inclusion in this year’s version of the …

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Commission to select priority transit projects

Posted

HERMANN —  The Gasconade County Commission tomorrow is scheduled to select the top transportation projects in the county to be considered for inclusion in this year’s version of the state’s Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP).

The county’s list of priority and secondary projects will be developed during the annual meeting between the Commission, Missouri Department of Transportation Regional Engineer Preston Kramer and Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) Executive Director Bonnie Prigge. The gathering is set to take place after county administrators conclude their regular weekly session at the courthouse.

After the county list is completed, it will be considered next month by MRPC’s Transportation Advisory Committee. That panel will consider the Gasconade County list along with the lists of the other seven counties within the Meramec Region. The Transportation Advisory Committee will forward its recommendation to the full MRPC Board of Directors, which has final say on the region’s list of projects that will be forwarded to the MoDOT board, which will then settle on the projects to be included in the state’s ongoing 5-year TIP. Each year the state TIP is updated with some projects being added and others taken off because they have been completed or no longer being pursued by a county.

Meanwhile, at last week’s session held at Owensville City Hall, county administrators met with representatives of Archer-Elgin, the county’s consulting engineers, about an ongoing problem with water backup at the site of recent new bridge construction on Valentine Ford Road. A water problem developed in an area near the bridge apparently because the site was not raised enough. According to Jeff Meadows of Archer-Elgin, it’s estimated that about 600 cubic tons of rock will be needed to fill the site and redirect water. That’s about 40 dumptruck loads of rock.

Meadows acknowledged that the site should have been checked to make sure it was elevated enough to prevent the water backup.

“Even the best of us make mistakes,” he said, noting that the engineer who worked on the project is no longer with the company.

The Commission agreed that county Road Department employees could do the necessary work at a lower cost than contracting the job to a private company. Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann, said he thinks the work could be done for less than $10,000. 

“We can fix it cheaper than we can hire it done,” Holland said.

“I guess the only question is who is going to pay for it?” said Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, turning to Meadows. “County can fix it. Do we pay for it? Do you (Archer-Elgin) pay for it? Do we use BRO funds?” he asked, referring to money in the county’s Bridge Rehabilitation Off-system program.

On another front, the Commission indicated it wants to move forward with Archer-Elgin providing more specific cost estimates for work that will be needed on the proposed installation of an elevator at the courthouse. The company several weeks ago proposed to do preliminary engineering work for $28,000. Holland balked at that amount and Lairmore and Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, agreed to table the offer until they received information from an elevator company representative.

What they learned from the elevator company is that engineering work would be beneficial and the Commission last week told Meadows it wants to proceed. Meadows said the company would review the cost estimate that it submitted to the county.

“We can vote on it next week,” Miskel said.

Another courthouse project — new doors on the main entrance — remain in limbo. The new doors — equipped with automatic opening devices to protect against the spread of COVID — were ordered more than a year ago and will be paid for with CARES Act money. But when those $40,000 doors will be installed is unclear. While the woodwork can be done by a Montgomery County milling company, the glass that goes in those doors has been unavailable.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow said the local contractor working with the milling company has “no idea when the glass is coming in.”

The door-replacement project initially included a single new door on the east side entrance, but it was decided by the Commission to drop that door because of the possibility that the proposed elevator would be installed on the outside of the building where the east-side entrance is.