Local road supervisors, engineers, and road maintenance staff from six states met in Rapid City, SD this week to share best practices and ideas for building and maintaining local roads in the midwest region.
The 28th Annual Regional Local Roads Conference was held October 23-24. The conference is sponsored each year by the Federal Highway Administration and the Local Technical Assistance Programs (LTAPs) of North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri, though officials from the last three were unable to attend this year. North Dakota LTAP coordinated this year's conference.
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Mike Dollinger, McKenzie County Engineering Assistant, speaks on a panel on the staffing and training issues in McKenzie County. The county, he said, is struggling to find and keep employees, a situation faced by many local governments in the oil patch.
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Among the several topics presented at the conference was an update from the National Association of County Engineers (NACE). NACE South Central Region VP Brian Keierleber from Iowa spoke on the federal legislative priorities the organization is focusing on and how those priorities will assist local road departments. Three of the priorities Keierleber talked on were making roads safer through increased signage and enhanced High Risk Rural Road program funding, project streamlining on all federal-aid projects, and an enhanced set-aside for the federal Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program. Relating to the "Toward Zero Deaths" (TZD) vision for counties, Keierleber said that it's important for local governments to develop local safety improvement plans and foster better interdisciplinary coordination between local law enforcement, emergency managers, EMS and fire protection providers, and state highway patrol officers.
Other topics touched on by speakers focused on personnel management, new chloride application processes, gravel management, using cement for full depth reclamation, and stabilization of subgrades and bases using chemical additives. Williams County Road Superintendent Dennis Nelson talked about his county's use of Permazine as a method of stabilization. "Traffic's just unbelievable," he said regarding county road use in the Bakken. Permazine, he said, did a good job of stabilizing road bases and subgrades in his county, though there were some errors mostly due to application.
Paul Cammack of Black Hills Energy spoke on the possibilities of using natural gas to fuel vehicles. He said that the nation's natural gas supply is abundant, estimated to last over 100 years. Natural gas is also a domestic product, with 98% of American consumed natural gas coming from the US. Cammack said that vehicle conversion to using compressed natural gas (CNG) as a fuel has an 18 month to two year return on investment, though that return depends largely on the number of vehicles converted. Nationwide, public vehicles like refuse collectors, school buses, public transit, and short-haul delivery vehicles are becoming the largest vehicle groups being converted. With over 1,100 CNG fueling stations in the US, Cammack said that the number could be a limiting factor on vehicle conversions. Cammack noted that the fueling stations can be expensive, costing between $5,000 and $2.5 million.
The conference also featured "You Show Us" awards, which honor local road officials for innovative projects they've developed to deal with real-world problems.
Kenny Tetrault, Burke County Road Superintendent, was awarded both the North Dakota and Regional "You Show Us" awards for his innovative solution to sign repair. Tetrault designed a sign repair platform that can be used to do roadside sign work safer and more efficiently. The platform is mounted on the back of a pickup and provides a sturdy and safe environment to work on road signs. Congratulations to Kenny for his innovative design!
Todd Mayer, Steffes Corporation, told the Dickinson American Petroleum Institute (API) chapter members Tuesday that his firm has sold over 1,000 of their engineered flare product. Mayer said the flare product creates a more efficient flame so that volatile organic carbons (VOCs) are not released into the atmosphere.
