The Washington County Engineer’s 2020 report was released
The report detailed the conditions of county roads and bridges
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At a glance:
¯ Washington County Engineer submitted an annual report to the county commission.
¯ It will be discussed at an upcoming commission meeting.
¯ The report details the status of roads and bridges maintained by the county
Source: Washington County Engineer.
The Washington County Engineer's 2020 annual report was recently released and detailed the conditions of county roads and bridges.
Engineer Roger Wright said he will go before the Washington County Commission during an upcoming meeting to discuss his department's findings.
"What we do is we have a consultant go out and they drive over roads in the county," he explained. "We hire a consultant to go out and give us those scores. Normally we have them do that every two to three years, just because of the cost. About once every three years, we'll have somebody go out and independently drive everything."
The score is a national standard which allows him to have an overall view of the county.
"When you look at the overall county infrastructure, we're still in good shape," said Wright.
According to the annual report, the county engineer's department maintains 341 miles of two-lane county roads and 379 bridges within one of the largest geographic area counties in Ohio.
Based on those scores, 69 miles of roads are in excellent condition, 41 miles are in very good condition, 117 miles are in good condition, 94 miles are in fair condition, and 17 miles are in poor condition.
Wright said the roads in poor condition are mostly gravel roads.
The report notes county forces managed to chip seal around 25 miles of road in 2020, a reduction from the 34 miles that were originally scheduled at the beginning of the year.
There is a planned resurfacing of almost 30 miles of road this year.
Wright said along with adding gravel to the poor roads, some money needs to be spent on good roads to keep them maintained.
"We do that through chip and seal and pavement patching," he said.
¯ The report also stated the total cost of snow and ice control was more than $807,000 this winter, compared with last year's $18,000.
¯ Work on the $1.66 million Cornerville Truss Bridge replacement on County Road 20 continues. The bridge has been demolished and will be replaced with a steel beam structure later this year.
¯ Wright said the annual report will be available on the county engineer's website at washingtongov.org/286/Engineer. Paper copies will be available by calling the office.
"We'll see if we can get that posted very, very soon," he said.
Michele Newbanks can be reached at mnewbanks@mariettatimes.com.