OCR Text |
Show Whcrf is happening vo our roods? Having one of the world' largest natural deposits of asphalt in the backyard, asphalt ridge, one would think Ashley Valley's roads would be some of the best in the state, but as anyone knows who has driven them, they are bad. "They keep the dust down and the traffic from speeding," said a visitor trying not to insult his hosts. Because Uintah County leases from SOHIO, one of the largest natural asphalt deposits in the country most of Ashley Valley's road are paved, but increased traffic and water and sewer construction have left many scars. Vernal City Public Works Director Kay Overson seems to think that part of the problem with the bad streets in Vernal Ver-nal City is the native asphalt. "Because the asphalt was so available," Overson said, "for years whenever a road was bad they would just spread on another layer of asphalt. Now some roads are three to six feet thick." According to Overson this later causes problems because the road base underneath the street is bad. Another problem causing bad roads if the native asphalt is rich in oil, in the hot summer months it becomes soft and begins to ripple, Overson said. "With the increased traffic it just has not held up," Overson said about the native asphalt. Presently Vernal City Street Crews are patching many of the streest, but "the patches don't last," Overson said. After a meeting two weeks ago with Overson, and Leonard Heeney, councilman coun-cilman appointed to the road department, depart-ment, Kenneth Bassett, city manager presented to the council a priority list for streets in Vernal City to be resurfaced. resurfac-ed. Top on the list was 500 South from 500 West Highway 40 on 500 South. This is a collector road and funds for it will come from the city's collector road fund. Cost is estimated at $170,000 for the road, and $75,000 for a culvert to replace a ditch along the road. Other priorities in road resurfacing are 500 South from Vernal Avenue to 500 East; 100 North from 200 East to 500 West and 100 West from Main to 100 North. Total for all road projects is estimated at $450,000. Overson said that his recommendation recommenda-tion to the city would be to use native asphalt but cut it with gravel so it won't be so soft. "One of the better roads in the city was done that way," Overson said refering to the 500 West and 500 North Highway which goes to Maeser. City Manager Bassett told the council at last council meeting that although money has been budgeted every year to resurface the city's streets, the money was never used and was put in excess at the end of the year. Bassett said he felt ' that Councilman Heeney and the city staff were "serious about improving Vernal 's roads." Outside Vernal City officials put the blame for the bad roads on a different problem. "The native asphalt is good," said Merrell Mecham, Uintah County Commissioner, Com-missioner, "but contractors who dig up the roads (mainly for the new sewer) are the main reason for the bad, streets." According to Mecham the Ashley Valley Sewer Board has let contracts on sewer lines and did not require the contractor con-tractor to bring the road back up to county specifications after installing the sewer line. Because of this problem several weeks ago the county adopted an ordinance or-dinance which requires any person or firm who does construction within roads maintained by the county to first file an easment. If the construction is within four feet of a county road the contractor must post a bond for $10 per linear foot of line to be installed to insure that road will be repaired to its original condition. "In the event the road is not properly repaired to its original condition the county may then use the proceeds from the bond to pay the costs of repairing the road." The ordinance stipulates that no project pro-ject can damage more than two miles of county road, so projects larger than two miles must have ongoing repairs. The ordinance also sets a 30 day limit within Continued on page 2 . Roads... (Continued from page 1) which all roads must be repaired, after construction. Persons violating the ordinance are subject to $299 fine, and having a injunction in-junction filed by the county attorney stopping their project. The County Commissioners met with the Ashley Valley Sewer Board two weeks ago about repairing roads effected ef-fected by the sewer. Since that time the county has agreed to help repair several of the roads scared by last summer's sum-mer's construction of the Valley-wide sewer system. Roads which the county and the Sewer Board will repair are 2500 West between 1000 and 1500 South; 2000 North between 3000 and 3250 South, and South Vernal Avenue between 1500 and 2300 South. Mechan said the county plans to use native asphalt to repair the roads in that hot mix will crack in the winter. "Native asphalt makes a good road if done at the proper time," Mecham said, warning that if it rains while the road is being laid it will ruin it. County road crews have also been out patching county roads, which for now seems like the temporary answer to front ends out of alignment, flat tires, bouncy rides, and an occasional trip to the mechanic. |