Guthrie County Secondary Roads Department had a busy spring and summer season with road and bridge projects.

County Engineer Josh Sebern says they were able to complete five bridge replacement projects, with most of them being converted from a bridge to a box culvert. A major project was a concrete overlay project from the City of Adair to Iowa Highway 44. They also did patch work and asphalt patching work on several paved roads in the county, along with widening some road shoulders and painting road markings.

Sebern points out one of the bridge replacements was in front of Rose Acres Farm that he felt was a priority to do this year.

“That one was definitely one that we needed to keep in service. We were able to work with some of the drainage problems we’ve seen in that area and hopefully get some of those resolved and get the water to drain away quicker and better to the river. It should make a really good product for us.”

He adds that some of the bridges they repaired were over 100 years-old and he thought that by keeping them in service is a testament to finding ways to not have to replace those kinds of structures.