North Dakotans find that wealth can come at a cost

The gravel road that borders Dave Hynek's farm is designed to carry 10 tractor-trailers a day. In a recent 24-hour period, about 800 passed by. Some are traveling 90 minutes west to Williston, where school Superintendent Viola LaFontaine expects as many as 3,800 students in the fall, about 57 percent more than her primary schools were built to hold.

North Dakota's economy outpaced every other state in 2011, with the fastest growth in personal income, jobs and home prices, according to Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States. Yet the oil boom fueling the nation's lowest unemployment rate also has a dark side. It's pushing rural North Dakota's housing, electric, water, police and emergency services to the breaking point.

Read more in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

NSSGA applauds House passage of bill halting expansion of federal dust regulations

The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association commends the U.S. House of Representatives for passing H.R.1633, the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act, a bill to protect producers of resource-based products, including aggregates, as well as farmers and ranchers, from increased regulation of a naturally occurring substance.

Read more on the NSSGA website.

Clark County (Wisc.) May Go Back to Gravel Roads

Could you imagine paved highways going back to gravel? That’s what officials are talking about in Clark County in west-central Wisconsin.

Highway Commissioner Randy Anderson says there’s no longer enough money to keep repairing Clark County’s 300 miles of paved roads

Read more in the Pierce County Herald.

Andover residents determining whether they want gravel road paved

The Andover City Council at its April 5 meeting approved reconstructing a few more paved roads in 2011. It may soon decide whether to add a gravel road to the project list.

Read more at ABC Newspapers.

Making a rural comeback: The old gravel road

In the rolling countryside along the Minnesota border, the lonesome, dusty roads seemingly outnumber the people. So when Tony and Gertie Monat were looking for a place to live 14 years ago, they were happy to find a house with the bonus of a paved surface in front of it.

Now that pavement has been pulverized. The county government couldn't afford to resurface it, and the road in front of Monats' white rambler is back to soft gravel. Amid the regular swirl of dust and flying stones, they can't help but feel they've lost a piece of modern life.

Read more in the Star Tribune.

Knife River Corporation President and CEO Testifies before Congressional Committee

Bill Schneider, president and CEO of Knife River Corporation testified today in Washington, D.C., before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee regarding the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus money on his company and the industry. Schneider also urged the committee members to pass a long-term highway funding bill to provide safer transportation routes and put thousands of construction workers back on the job.

Schneider, who is also the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association's board chairman, credits ARRA stimulus funding for keeping dozens of Knife River employees at work.

"The construction industry currently has a 20 percent unemployment rate, the highest for any business sector nationally," Schneider said. "In early 2010, more than 27 percent of the construction workforce was on the unemployment lines."

America's deplorable road and bridge conditions are in desperate need of long-term funding bill. The American Society of Civil Engineers reports that one-third of America's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition.

"As an unbelievable example of road conditions and correlated lack of funding, Stutsman County, N.D., started turning nearly 50 miles of paved roads back to gravel surfaces this summer because it no longer has the money to maintain the existing asphalt surfaces," Schneider said. "This is equivalent to turning the clock back 75 years. Each of the other 49 states has a similar story to tell about road conditions and the dire need for long-term funding to coincide with long-term planning."

Read more at Market Watch.

Short of money? Pulverize roads

The drive through northeast Wisconsin’s Forest County could get a bit bumpier starting next summer.

Faced with rising road maintenance costs and no increase to its $654,000 highway department budget from last year, the county may cut costs by simply pulverizing some deteriorating paved roads into a mix of gravel and asphalt.

“It’s expensive to do initially, but eventually, the cost is much lower to take care of them. It may get to that,” said John Rogers, Forest County highway commissioner.

Forest County is not alone, as more cash-strapped and rural counties and municipalities throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin consider suspending maintenance to paved roads or converting the surfaces to gravel-and-asphalt mixtures.

Read more in Finance & Commerce.

Rochester Sand & Gravel only bidder on Highway 14 project

Rochester Sand & Gravel is the low bidder — and only bidder — for a Highway 14 improvement project in Rochester.

On Friday, officials with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) opened bids for the project, which calls for pavement improvements, signal upgrades and other work on a two-mile stretch of Highway 14 between Highway 52 and Marion Road.

Rochester Sand & Gravel submitted a bid of $6.02 million for the project. MnDOT estimated that the project would cost $4.7 million.

MnDOT District 6 spokeswoman Kristine Hernandez said the department still plans to move forward with the project, despite the higher-than-expected cost and the lack of bidders.

“They have 30 days to award the contract, so basically what happens next is our central office will review everything and make sure they have addressed everything in the project,” she said. “And if it all looks good, they will go ahead and award it.”

Read more at Finance and Commerce.

Aggregate roads making a comeback?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal describes how paved roads are being torn up across rural America because asphalt is just too expensive for them to replace.

According to the article, 38 of 83 counties in Michigan have converted some asphalt roads to gravel. South Dakota turned at least 100 miles of asphalt to gravel. Counties in Alabama and Pennsylvania have been downgrading asphalt roads to chip-and-seal road and counties in Ohio are simply letting roads erode to gravel.

John Habermann of Purdue University, who recently organized a seminar about the resurgence of gravel roads called "Back to the Stone Age," points out that gravel roads are not free as they do need to be graded and smoothed.

Go to July 17 The Wall Street Journal to read more.