T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Marshall County Supervisor Steve Salasek, left, and County Engineer Paul Geilenfeldt, right, view a map as they discuss the five-year roads and bridges plan during a special meeting held Tuesday morning.

Because the Iowa Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) website was shut down for an extended period of time, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors was forced to delay reviewing and approving the five-year secondary roads construction plan at its most recent regular meeting.

With the site back up and running as of this week, the board took care of the task after discussing plans with county engineer Paul Geilenfeldt during a special meeting on Tuesday morning.

Geilenfeldt reviewed the entire five-year plan for both road improvements and bridges, and he noted that fiscal year 2023 should be a busy one for bridge projects with a total of six replacements planned (all of the bridges in question are currently load posted) and estimated expenditures of $2.7 million — Bridges H1 and H2 on the 1600 mile of Abbott Avenue (both shared with Tama County), Bridge C6 on the 1000 mile of Gerhart Avenue, Bridges N19 and N24 on North 115th Avenue West over tributaries of Snipe Creek (Jasper County is the lead on both projects) and Bridge F4 on Jessup Avenue over Minerva Creek.

Of the bridges, the Jessup Avenue replacement is the most expensive with an estimated cost of $1.5 million, but all of the funding on that project will come through a federal SWAP reimbursement.

Geilenfeldt also has a busy year planned with $4.3 million in road projects, including hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavement replacement at the Wolf Lake housing subdivision ($1.5 million), a pavement rehabilitation and widening on Dillon Road ($1.2 million), paving the 3300 mile of East Main Street Road ($800,000), pavement rehabilitation and widening on 260th Street (E49) from Highway 146 east to the Tama County line ($400,000) and Zeller Avenue (T38) from Gilman south to the Jasper County line ($400,000). Currently, the Wolf Lake project is the only one slated to rely entirely on local funding, but Geilenfeldt and the board discussed potentially using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars originally earmarked for conservation projects to offset some of the cost if the conservation projects are not deemed feasible.

Because several of the major projects in the upcoming budget are located in the eastern half of the county, Supervisor Steve Salasek, who hails from that area, said he was excited about the prospect.

“I am just giddy about this whole page. It’s going to reduce my phone calls to maybe nothing,” he said. “This is wonderful, though. Outstanding.”

At Monday night’s joint meeting between the supervisors and the Marshalltown city council, discussions about a potential paving project on 233rd Street from Highland Acres Road to the Grimes Farm and Conservation Center were revived, with some officials expressing openness to splitting the cost between the governing bodies and seeking further funding from nonprofit organizations. As a result, the board considered whether the project should be added back into the five-year plan and ultimately settled on preparing for an amendment to include the Grimes Farm road at a later date.

“I don’t think it’s dead in the water, our proposal. It’s just going to take some more work to get everybody on the same page,” Board Chairman Dave Thompson said.

In addition to the increased costs that have coincided with inflation and supply chain issues, Geilenfeldt noted a general lack of road and bridge contractors in Iowa, especially those willing to take on smaller jobs.

Ultimately, the board approved both the FY2023 Iowa DOT budget and the secondary roads five-year program by a unanimous vote. While Geilenfeldt said there is never enough money to complete all of the projects he would like to see finished, he does his best to work with what he has.

“I’ve said it before. We’re at a $9 million budget, and I could spend $20 million every year without any problem at all,” he said. “We just have to use everything we get for revenue the best we can use it.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.