Two heavily used roads in Greene County were recently resurfaced following damage that was done when wind turbines were being constructed several years ago. 

Greene County Engineer Wade Weiss says the eight-mile segment along County Roads P-46 and E-18 are back open to traffic once again. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio the two roads sustained damage when the wind turbines were first built in the northeastern portion of the county, but that with the resurfacing, both roads saw a complete overhaul in terms of quality as well.

“We upgraded this to a little higher standard, based on the truck traffic and what we’ve seen, all over the county, we’ve seen a lot of damage. Our pavements are normally six inches of concrete, unreinforced, on black dirt. We actually crushed the concrete sections up there, put that down as a sub-base, we put ten inches of concrete, and we actually put dowel bars at the joints. So, we’re looking at this probably being a 100 year pavement for Greene County, and we hope that it does.”  

Additionally, Weiss notes that there were drainage tiles installed in the shoulders of those roadways to help keep the road lasting longer. He points out that these projects were within the Urban Renewal Area and that allowed for tax increment financing (TIF) to be used from the wind turbines to pay for the not to exceed $11.5 million project. 

Weiss adds that next year, County Road E-26 from the Dana city limits east to the Greene and Boone County line, and County Road P-46 south of Dana to US Highway 30 will also be resurfaced.