KAC official assesses county roads

Jackson County’s gravel roads need more crowning, according to Norm Bowers, road engineer for the Kansas Association of Counties. 

Bowers was invited to the county on Monday to view the roads in order for the Jackson County Commissioners to get an “outsider’s view” of the condition of the county roads.

After touring several roads in the county, Bowers reported to the commissioners that it’s important to replace the blades on the county motor graders often in order to prevent them for wearing down in the middle, which can create roads with a flat center and steeper sides.

“The time to correct the crowning is when you’re rocking a road,” Bowers said. “It’s a gradual process unless you happen to be re-rocking the entire road.”

Bowers said that many counties, including Jackson County, have a slope meter in their graders that help the operators when working on a road.

“The driver needs to look at it,” he said. “Crown will help with wet spells.”

Bowers noted that there was some dirt and grass in the windrows along several county roads and that he didn’t notice many ditches. 

He suggested the county purchase a disc that “chops up” four to five feet of grass to build up the edges of the roads more. 

“It would take a lot of money, and it’s a slow process,” he said. “And it seems like everyone wants ditches in front of someone else’s house instead of theirs.”

Road and bridge co-supervisors Eric Fritz and Earl Bahret were also present during the meeting and agreed with most of Bowers’ assessments.

“He told us what we already know,” Fritz said. “It takes rock to create a crown, and there isn’t a ditch in this county that doesn’t need to be cleaned out.”

On a positive note, Bowers said he didn’t notice a lot of potholes as he was touring the county.

“You’re not doing a bad job with routine maintenance,” he said. “This isn’t necessarily easy stuff. Maintaining a rock road is a complicated thing.”

Bowers said that, in Johnson County, officials were 42 times more likely to receive a road complaint from someone on a rocked road compared to a resident who lived on blacktop.

“You’re never going to have 100 percent satisfaction,” he said. 

Commissioner Bill Elmer said that each of the county’s motor grader operators maintains between 70 to 80 miles of road and asked Bowers if that was a common amount.

“In areas with heavier traffic, you should be doing less miles,” he said. “For the amount of traffic you have, that might be too many miles for your blades in the south, but, from what I can tell, that would be okay for the blades in the north.”

Bowers reiterated that the best time to blade a road is three or four days after a rainfall.

“In some counties, people blade in dry weather because they know the public wants to see the graders out,” he said. “It’s more of a public relations things, but you shouldn’t blade when it’s dry. Don’t blade unless you’re doing some good.”

Elmer said one of the county’s biggest issues is the lack of a rock quarry located in the county and that rock has to be hauled in, which costs time and money. 

Bowser said that the quality of the rock being placed on county roads was good but maybe not enough.

“I didn’t see any road that had too much rock on it,” he said. 

Bowers added that road improvements don’t happen overnight.

“You can’t tell in six months if trying something new is working,” he said. “It’s a long-term evaluation. It’s a cumulative thing, but it sounds like the county is going in the right direction.”

Norm Bowers has been the local road engineer for the Kansas Association of Counties since March 2007. He is a professional engineer and registered land surveyor.

The Kansas Association of Counties is a quasi-public agency, which seeks to advance the public interest by promoting effective, responsive county government in Kansas. Founded in 1975, as an instrumentality of its member counties, the association serves county governments through Legislative representation, technical assistance, leadership and professional education.