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16 <br /> <br />Cass County Highways: Current Status of Paved Highways <br />Cass County currently maintains 311.5 miles of paved highways along the rural portions of the county. These <br />highways vary in age and building materials (See Appendix 5 for pavement age) and will deteriorate at varying <br />rates due to these factors. To determine their condition, county roads are inspected every 5 years by an <br />independent testing consultant using a “Falling Weight Deflectometer” and given a PCI (Pavement Condition <br />Index) rating from the results of this test. These results are used by county engineering staff to help shape <br />decisions for future roadway maintenance/rebuilding. The most recent PCI survey was completed in 2022 and <br />results are shown in Appendix 3. Cass County’s goal is to have an overall PCI of 90. Our current PCI average is <br />81.6, thus we will be focusing on overlaying a number of our older, “Fair” rated asphalt pavements. <br />Additionally, seal coats are applied to asphalt highways one year after paving or overlaying has been completed <br />to increase the life of the pavement to 15-20 years. Our overall goal is to complete another chip seal around <br />years 8-14 if needed to extend the life of the existing pavement before another overlay is necessary. A map <br />showing the most recent seal coat for each highway is shown in Appendix 6. <br />Cass County Highways: Current Status of Gravel Highways <br />Cass County currently maintains 328.34 miles of gravel highways within the rural portions of the county. These <br />highways vary in age, and some have been widened for future paving. Currently, the roads are maintained with <br />weekly or bi-weekly grading depending on usage. Additionally, a budget for road repairs is prepared every year <br />and additional gravel is added to roads requiring repairs with the allotted funds on a priority system of damage <br />and usage. A more uniform plan for gravel roads has been adopted for the future, where a general standard of <br />28’ road tops with a 4% crown grade will be used for future gravel grading and reshaping projects. In addition to <br />these dimensional standards, areas with weak subgrade are retrofitted with drain tile to remove excess <br />moisture from the subgrade or cement reinforcement sections to increase the structural capacity of the road <br />top. Gravel roads that have become widened or flatter over time from traffic will also be reshaped. Reshaping <br />returns the roadway back to its designed width and crown. As gravel costs and traffic increase, gravel <br />stabilization, dust control, and subgrade stabilization are becoming more important. Since 2011 we have <br />completed over 50 Miles of centerline draintile, and 85 Miles of subgrade stabilization on gravel roads <br />throughout the county. We anticipate adding more miles of stabilized gravel and more miles of roads with dust <br />control in the future. A map showing the completed draintile projects is shown in Appendix 11, and the <br />completed subgrade stabilization projects is shown in Appendix 12. This will help bridge the gap between gravel <br />roads with 100 ADT or less and paved roads with more than 400 ADT. Our gravel roads with 100-400 ADT have a <br />need for more enhanced gravel treatments, stabilization, and dust control to adequately manage the roadway <br />conditions as traffic increases. <br /> <br /> <br />