Auglaize County commissioners approved its $1.6 million paving program for 2023. The county will enter into a contract with the Findlay-based Shelly Company to resurface just over 11 miles of county roadway covering sections of Santa Fe-New Knoxville Road (pictured) and Kettlersville Road.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
WAPAKONETA — Portions of two roads in Auglaize County will be repaved after county commissioners approved its 2023 road paving program, which will come with a bill of just over $1.6 million.
Repair efforts will be concentrated on Santa Fe-New Knoxville Road from county Road 25A to state Route 65 and Kettlersville Road from state Route 219 to U.S. Route 33, totaling 11.4 total miles of roadway to be resurfaced. According to Toby Lee, the facility superintendent at the Auglaize County Engineer’s Office, the project will involve fewer miles than last year, which saw 17 miles of county roadway resurfaced. However, along with rising costs for materials, there is another reason why the engineer’s office was focused on these two roads.
“We’re doing some reprofiling of both of the roads because of the heavy semi traffic on them,” he said. “That’s actually doing two passes of paving on those roads instead of one like we normally do.”
According to Lee, heavier semi traffic has caused ruts in the roadway requiring crews to apply an additional layer of road surface to raise the road surface and even it out. The winning bid of $1.6 million was submitted to the county by the Shelly Company, based in Findlay. While it was the only bid the county received for the project, it still came in under the original engineer’s estimate of just over $1.7 million, according to the resolution provided by the commissioners’ office. While a start date has not yet been determined, the project must, according to the resolution, be completed by Sept. 15. This program does not cover chip and seal repair work on other county roads, as crews from the engineer’s office will make those repairs.
Commissioners also approved a $77,400 bid for its bridge paving program Tuesday, with that bid coming from Buehler Asphalt Paving Inc. of St. Marys. This bid was also below the original engineer’s estimate of $80,000. This program will involve the application of 200 cubic yards of intermediate and surface mix asphalt, according to the commissioners resolution approving the bid.
“Those are individual little spots,” Lee said. “Basically, we will replace a bridge and Buehler Asphalt comes in and just does the surface once we get the new bridge installed.”
Lee estimated that the program would cover 10 to 12 areas on various county bridges.
Reach Craig Kelly at 567-242-0391 or on Twitter @cmkelly419.
