Sean C. Morgan
The Linn County Road Department has completed two major projects in the Sweet Home area this summer, including the realignment of the Marks Ridge Road and Berlin Road intersection and the paving of a section of North River Drive at Foster Lake.
Linn County completed the Marks Ridge realignment in cooperation with a property owner, said Darrin Lane, Linn County roadmaster. “It’s been a slow project. It’s almost finished.”
A property owner approached Linn County in September 2013, Lane said, and he told county officials he planned to log his property, which is adjacent to Marks Ridge and Berlin roads. The property owner asked them if they were interested in fixing that intersection.
That intersection may have been suitable at one time, Lane said, but it’s certainly not a good intersection for modern traffic.
Until this summer, the intersection was shaped like a fork, with Marks Ridge running to the southeast and Berlin Road running to the south at the fork, making it a tight right turn from northbound Berlin to Marks Ridge or Marks Ridge left to southbound Berlin.
County officials told the property owner to outline the road where he wanted it and then turn that space over to the county as right-of-way, Lane said. “So we said OK. We went up there, marked the area.”
Right after logging, Linn County hired a local contractor to rough in the new roadway, Lane said, and this summer, the county completed the project, contracting for bulldozing and paving, with the remaining work completed by county staff.
The roadway is open, Lane said, but the county still has some minor work to complete it.
It is much safer than it was, Lane said. “We very much appreciate the property owner working with us.”
The project cost around a couple hundred thousand dollars, Lane said. He has not calculated the total final cost of the project yet.
While the county was working in the Sweet Home, it also sought bids for North River Drive, Lane said. That section of the road slowly slumps away, making it difficult to keep the road in good condition. Over the past year that section of the road remained gravel, and during that time it dropped 6 inches, Lane said. Soil conditions there are affected by the weather and the elevation of the pool in Foster Reservoir.
“We’ll patch it when it settles the next few years,” Lane said, but the county will probably have to grind it out and gravel it again in a few years.
The disadvantage to leaving it in gravel is the high level of traffic on the road, Lane said, and properly solving the problem is expensive.
The county also is working on three slide areas along Quartzville Drive as part of its effort to develop the recreational area, Lane said. He anticipates parking improvements and an overlay.
The county is applying for federal grants to pay for the Quartzville project, Lane said, and he expects to see a lot of activity in the Quartzville Corridor next summer.