(Spirit Lake)– Whether or not Dickinson county should up its financial anty in an effort to upgrade Highway 86 between Highway nine and the Minnesota border in just one construction season instead of two was a topic of discussion at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting.
The county currently has 300-thousand dollars earmarked for the project. County Engineer Dan Eckert suggested the supervisors look at doubling that to 600-thousand to try to sway the state to get the project done quicker.
But one supervisor is skeptical about that. Supervisor Paul Johnson doubts it would make any difference, citing the state’s budget situation. And he says it’s premature to act now on the additional incentive given the county’s own budget headaches. Fellow supervisors agreed and decided to hold off on making a decision until after further budget discussions are held.
As another incentive, Eckert recommended the county accept jurisdiction from the state over a portion of the current Highway 86 near the stateline that will be bypassed as part of a project to get a straight shot into Minnesota. The current Highway 86 pavement on both sides of the border would be tee’d up. And instead of the D.O.T removing pavement from that area and replacing it with gravel, Eckert will request the pavement be left in place, which he says will save the state money for pavement removal and gravel.
Eckert plans to offer those concessions to D.O.T commissioners at their meeting January 12th in Ames.
The Highway 86 project has a current total estimated cost of nearly 14 million dollars. The curve by-pass near the stateline is estimated at 2.9 million with the remaining four and-a-half miles from there to Highway Nine estimated at 11 million.
