Winter weather puts Idaho town 10 years behind on road repairs

Winter weather puts Idaho town 10 years behind on road repairs

(Laurie Welch, Times-News)


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RUPERT — Winter storms have decimated miles of Rupert streets, mainly in residential areas, and put the city as many as 10 years behind on repairs.

Early city estimates show 2.1 miles of roads damaged by the flooding in just the past two months with an anticipated cost of $400,000, said Roger Davis, head of the city’s streets department, reported the Times-News.

Add that to the $2,256,500 that the city was behind in deferred maintenance costs as of December.

Now, Mayor Mike Brown said the may have to pass a bond to get street repairs back on track. The idea is likely to come up at the City Council’s next meeting, 7 p.m. Tuesday at Rupert City Hall.

“It’s just a plan right now and maybe there are other plans,” the mayor said. “We’re open to suggestions.”

A bond issue would allow the city to do the work quickly.

“We need to get moving, because the damage is done already,” Brown said.

Despite spending about $200,000 a year on streets, the city has delayed making some street repairs to pay for other needs, including a fire truck, police vehicles and new department trucks.

“It catches up with you, and now we have a major amount of streets that need repairs,” he said.

The recent flooding has caused water to go underneath the road, which then freezes and thaws, causing the pavement to crack.

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Now, instead of chip seal, the city will have to dig up the road base in some areas and re-compact it before laying new asphalt.

Eighty percent of the damage is in residential areas and 20 percent in commercial districts, Davis said.

“As with everything else we expect to have more damage later on,” he said.

The city is also concerned about the stability of power poles that have had standing water at the base for 30 days.

“What happens is that base softens and then when we get a heavy wind we can have power poles fall over,” said Davis, the streets director.

Officials ask that residents and businesses to report their flood losses on a form available at the Minidoka County Courthouse.

“We are looking at a recovery time from the flooding of three to five years,” Davis said. “At the minimum.”

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Laurie Welch, Times-News

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