Hubbard Road near completion; other projects to begin
Ponca City Now - January 8, 2016 11:13 am
County Commissioner Vance Johnson said Friday morning that the HubbardRoad widening and reconstruction project is near completion, as soon as weather allows.
"We need 10 days of above-freezing weather to finish the asphalt, and two days of 47-degrees plus to stripe it," Johnson said. "I’ve been looking at the forecast and the likelihood of 10 days above freezing and dry may take a little while."
He said dry weather is essential so the layers of asphalt will adhere to one another.
"We appreciate everyone’s patience, but we would rather have a delay and a quality job than to rush and have a poor quality job," he said.
Evans and Associates is the contractor on the project, Johnson said.
Johnson also said a new project will be sent out for bids in the near future. It will be a $1.2 million extension on Brake Road that will be funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He said this is the road on which 100 trucks a day run gravel to the wind farms in north central Oklahoma.
He said he also met with the Kaw Nation and the BIA, who agreed to fund $75,000 a year to repair asphalt roads in the county. The funding will be from the BIA through the Kaw Nation, he said, and will be used to repair roads in the Kaw Nation territory.
Johnson said the next phase of the Duke Energy Wind Farm will start Jan. 15 and trucks will start hauling gravel to set up the next phase. The wind farm is on Brake Road between U.S. Highway 177 and Q Street in Blackwell.
The commissioner said a bookkeeping oversight will be corrected Monday by the board of commissioners when they vote to approve Souligny Road as a public county road.
"Souligny Road was given to the public in 1967, but no one ever accepted it into county maintenance," he said. "Since it was a private road, I quit grading it."
Johnson said he had gotten a letter from school district which allowed him to grade it legally to transport students.
"On Monday we will accept it as a public road and I can return to grading it, legally," Johnson said.
