Small section of Hwy T-22 set for replacement

Supervisors have now hired a contractor to replace pavement along a portion of Highway T-22 South that had settled over a box culvert and caused a dip in the road. The county engineer last month said the portion of the highway is about 0.2 miles north of South 44th Avenue East. In total, four bids were submitted.

TK Concrete, Inc. provided the low bid of $70,165. Boulder Contracting, LLC and Manatt’s Inc. trailed behind with $87,801.20 and $91,848.50 bids, respectively. The fourth bidder was Jasper Construction, but the contracting company’s bid was substantially higher than the others the county received.

Jasper County Engineer Michael Frietsch prepared plans for the replacement project in September, and it will be funded with local dollars.

“We prepared a set of plans to basically take out that 177 feet of pavement there, do special subgrade prep — basically get a third party to verify compaction on it — put some new subbase rock in there and then put new eight-inch PCC slab in there, a reinforced joint slab,” Frietsch said to supervisors on Oct. 15.

Frietsch estimated the project to cost around $84,000. When the engineer was first discussing the project plans with supervisors back in September, it was thought to be significantly higher in price. He told supervisor Doug Cupples it could cost between $150,000 to $200,000.

Even though it is not a long distance of pavement to replace, Frietsch was overestimating how much it would have cost. Either way, the project will be much appreciated by motorists hauling heavy trailers.