Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Tuesday, Feb. 20 @ 12:11 p.m. / Infrastructure, Local Government, Roads
County Engineer Provides List, Cost Breakdown For Repairing Del Norte's Unmaintained Public Roads
The county engineer considers fixing drainage issues on Darby Street a viable project, though it's not maintained by the county. | Courtesy of Del Norte County
Jon Olson went before the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors last week with a list of public roads the county doesn’t currently maintain and an estimated $43,000 price tag to make repairs to them.
The county engineer ran through the list alphabetically, stating which repairs he felt were viable and which would be poor candidates for repairs. The most expensive project, according to Olson’s report, is addressing drainage issues on Darby Street north of Dodane Avenue in the Bertsch-Oceanview area southeast of Crescent City.
“The estimated cost was about $35,000 if our road crew was to go out and make modifications,” he said, “which would include [filling] in the lake, [opening] up the ditches, [and] there are some drainage issues we could address.”
Del Norte County maintains roughly 300 miles of public roads, however not all have been adopted into its road system. Using Road Division dollars to maintain roads that aren’t within the county’s official road system isn’t allowed, according to Olson’s staff report from the Board’s Feb. 13 meeting.
On Jan. 23, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to prioritize repairs to public roads that are currently inaccessible to public responders. According to District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey, her late colleague, Bob Berkowitz, who died about two years ago, had asked the county to set aside about $50,000 from its general fund to repair roads that aren’t currently maintained by the county.
Starkey said she and Berkowitz’s successor, Dean Wilson, had both pushed for that policy to be presented to the Board of Supervisors.
Olson’s list included repairs to Adams Avenue near Napa Street; Napa Street north of Washington Boulevard and roads in the Rock Creek Subdivision about eight miles up South Fork Road from U.S. 199.
Other roads on Olson’s list included Joaquin Street north of Washington and Union Street west of Michigan Street. He said he didn’t consider these viable projects.
Major cleanup would be needed for the Union Street project since its public easement is littered with burnt out RVs and trailers, according to Olson’s report.
“I don’t even know where to start until we start moving RVs that are burnt,” he said.
Fixing the "crater" on Beech Street near Lake Street was included on a list of unmaintained county roads that needed repairs. | Courtesy of Del Norte County
As for Joaquin Street north of Washington, Olson said there’s a “huge crater” that’s a big problem, but to fix it county staff would need access to private property.
In some cases, such as on Adams Avenue near Napa Street and on Napa Street north of Washington Boulevard, the homeowners have made their own improvements, Olson said.
An option for Adams Street would be for the county to supply gravel to the homeowner and allow them to go ahead and grade it, Olson said. The cost estimate was about $1,000 for 40 tons of rock.
Similarly, for Napa Street north of Washington, an option for the county would be to provide about 40 tons of rock and allow property owners to continue to perform maintenance. The cost estimate for this was $1,000, according to Olson’s report.
In the Rock Creek Subdivision, address most drainage issues would require cooperation from property owners, Olson said. There was a collapsed drainage pipe within the public right of way in one spot, he said. Though someone has “Mickey Moused” something, it’s not working. Correcting this would cost about $6,000, Olson said.
Noting that there’s about $7,000 left over out of the $50,000 set aside for these repairs, Starkey asked if the county could partner with the property owners on Lake Street and Beech Street near Joaquin Street.
Olson agreed that the “huge crater” in the middle of Lake Street and Beech impacts at least one home on that road. It would require a quite a bit of work to get it to drain, he said.
When asked if there’s a timeline for these projects, Olson told the Wild Rivers Outpost that dry weather was needed before staff could make these repairs. Staffing is also a concern, he said, adding that there are many vacancies within the Del Norte County Road Division.
“These new projects will have to be worked into the schedule as time permits,” Olson said. “Recently most of the Division’s time has been dedicated to weather-related issues like landslides, flooding and sinkholes.”
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