County to resurface nearly 13 miles in 2025-26
Daviess Fiscal Court approved the 2025-26 roadway resurfacing list, which totals 12.861 miles of roads, during its meeting Thursday at the Daviess County Courthouse.
Dirk Dooper, county engineer, said his staff didn't find 'any major shocks' related to damage from weather, but damage caused by inclement weather can take time to develop.
'Even with the major flood we had, we didn't have anything that went too awful bad,' he said. 'We did have two hard snows this winter, so we'll see how it shapes up over the summer. We can probably see the issues a year from now, where it could show up down the road, but it takes a while.'
Dooper said a short list of roads that show signs of needing attention is built throughout the year, then its whittled down to the resurfacing list.
'Me and my staff, I've got an inspector and a road foreman and a road supervisor, and essentially the four of us go out, we drive the streets, we've got the experience, so we go out and look at the worst streets in terms of deterioration, potholes, you name it, and then we kind of compare it. That's how we do our initial selection.'
Dooper said having the short list allows the department to keep track of which roads are trending toward needing attention.
'We'll put a road on the list, and it may not make this year, but we'll see how it does another winter and then may add it on, so we keep an eye on it,' he said. 'Then when it gets worse from that, it comes to our (resurfacing) list.'
The road selection process also factors in how many county roads are in each district. That percentage is used as a guide for how many roads to address in each district.
For example, the East District has 46% of all county roads, and 51% of the resurfacing list are roads in that district. Similarly, the Central District has 20% of the county roads and totals 19% of the resurface list. The West District has 34% of the county's roads and makes up 30% of the resurfacing list.
The county has budgeted $1 million for the resurfacing, and the county will also receive flex funds from the state, but that amount hasn't yet been released.
Dooper said costs have remained steady in recent years.
'It was bad several years ago when the price of oil went up, back in 2022, but that hasn't been affected recently, so we haven't seen a big price increase with that,' he said. 'It's been kind of steady with asphalt the last couple of years.'
Ten roads and one alley are slated to be resurfaced in the East District, with Scythia Road between Free Silver Road and Kentucky 1389 and Cedar Hills Subdivision the only areas slated for resurfacing of more than a mile.
The longest stretch of road on the list at nearly 3 miles is the only project in the Central District, with Masonville Habit Road to be resurfaced between U.S. 231 and Millers Mill Road.
The West District has two projects of more than 1 mile: Old Lyddane Bridge Road between Kentucky 279 and Haycraft Road and W. 5th Street Road between Lyddane Bridge Road and Worthington Road.
Dooper said the work will be ongoing through the fall as long as the weather permits.
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