Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Residents voice concerns on Sunset Highway, Hawk Creek Road
DAVENPORT—Some of the road projects the Lincoln County Public Works Department wants to complete have the necessary funding, but most are just proposed ideas. Citizens have other concerns about roads, but the county doesn’t have the funding to immediately repair those roads either.
All of these topics were discussed at a public hearing for the county’s six-year transportation plan, which public works director Rick Becker clarified is largely ideas outside of the few items that have secured funds.
The plan included 20 projects, three of which have secured funding. The remaining 17 are simply proposed plans as part of a six-year plan that is changed on a yearly basis.
The first project with secured funding is to widen and re-surface a three-mile stretch of Miles-Creston Road from Copenhaver Road that will begin in 2022. The project will cost $986,414 in federal funds, $1,645,646 in state funds and $10,000 in local funds for a total of $2,642,060.
The second project is for an additional 1.6 mile stretch on Miles-Creston Road that will widen, re-surface and improve the street and begin in 2022. That project costs $658,690 in federal funds and $1,331,628 in state funds for a total of $1,990,318.
The final project with secured funding is to re-align, widen and re-surface a 3.3 mile stretch of Duck Lake Road from Highway 28 to just west of Cooper Road. The project will cost $2,213,900 in state funds and $246,100 in local funds for a total of $2.46 million and will begin in 2022.
Becker and county engineer Walt Olsen discussed 17 more proposed projects that haven’t received any financial backing to this point.
Those projects include a county seal coat project, a four-mile overlay of Miles-Creston road, a 3.5 mile section improvement of Mohler Road, a 1.3 mile upgrade of Hawk Creek Road, a 5.7 and 4.9 mile improvement of Hanson Harbor Road, a two-mile upgrade of Level Road, a 5.8 mile improvement of a separate stretch of Hawk Creek Road, a three-mile improvement of Riffe Road, a 2.6 mile improvement of Sprague Highway Road, a three-mile overlay of Waukon Road, a 5.8 mile improvement of Kiner Road, a 3.7 mile stretch improving a different stretch of Kiner Road, replacing the Gerald Zellmer Bridge and Blenz Bridge, mitigating rockfall at Porcupine Bay, safety enhancements and improvements and countywide road preservation.
During the public hearing, Michelle Mitchell of Bald Ridge and Tom Wells of Mondovi expressed concern with a stretch of Sunset Highway from Bennett Road east to Highway 2.
“The potholes are really, really bad,” Wells said. “And it’s really hard on the large farm equipment that travels that way.”
Wells and Mitchell mentioned the 50 mph speed limit on a stretch of the road, saying someone going that speed could get in an injury car crash.
“If someone gets hurt, I’ll testify in court that you knew about it,” Mitchell told the county commissioners and public works department.
Becker and Olsen said that Sunset Highway is another project that the county doesn’t presently have the funding to tackle.
Rick Geiger of Hawk Creek requested a full project done on the gravel stretch of Hawk Creek Road, while Fred Holm had concerns with washboarding on Hanson Harbor Road. Both citizens also got responses saying the county would need the funding necessary to perform such deeds.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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