DARKE COUNTY — After more than two years in the making, a local road paving project in Darke County has been recently completed and was aided by a grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission (OPWC).
Project recipients were the boards of trustees of 10 townships in Darke County and Darke County Engineer Jim Surber. The project was formulated and administered by the County Engineer’s Office.
The work included asphalt paving on 12.162 miles of township roads, 14.06 miles of county roads, and 1 mile of township road under county obligation. Asphalt thickness placed was 1-1/2 inches in two courses for the resurfacing and 2-1/2 inches thick in two courses on the Chase Road. The road widths varied from 16.5 to 24 feet, and materials used included 27,227 tons of asphalt and 6,610 tons of shoulder aggregate.
The project’s total cost was $2,090,254 and was funded with an OPWC grant of $773,394 and local funding by the recipients of $1,316,860. The paving contractor was Walls Brothers Asphalt of Greenville.
The average cost per mile for the resurfacing was $76,785 and the grant lowered the average cost to the townships and county to $48,375 per mile, which is equal to the resurfacing cost of 10 years ago.
The roads resurfaced and the recipient jurisdictions are as follows, listing the township, road, and road length (miles):
- Adams: New Harrison-Bradford 0.55, Stahl 1.01
- Brown: Ansonia-Elroy 1.18
- Franklin: Painter Creek-Arcanum 1.02
- Harrison: Billman 1.35
- Jackson: Hillgrove-Woodington 1.52
- Monroe: Oakes 1.032
- Twin: Loop 0.502, Littles 0.568
- Washington: Wildcat 1.20
- Wayne: Conover 1.00
- York: Wabash-York 1.23
The county roads resurfaced include:
- New Madison-Coletown 7.01
- Requarth 3.56
- Hogpath 3.49
- Chase (Twp.) 1.00
In all, a total of 27.222 miles were resurfaced. Surber said this was the first project of its type in Darke County and a similar project is currently under planning for 2019, to include the remaining 10 townships in the county.
